A devastating fire that gutted a crowded student rental house in Allston yesterday and apparently left a woman dead is under investigation by the Inspectional Services Department and has at least one city councilor calling for a broad-based review of student-housing safety.

“This is a tragic situation that may have been avoided,” District 8 Councilor Michael P. Ross told the Herald last night. He said he wants answers about whether the house was legally occupied and divided, and a review of other student rentals in the city to see if there are other potential problem properties.

A woman’s body was found in the attic, which firefighters said they couldn’t reach when flames blocked the only access they could find. Boston University officials identified the woman as a BU student but did not release her name.

Fire Capt. Patrick J. Ellis of Ladder 14 said firefighters could find no interior access to the second floor from the front first-floor entrance because of “the way the house is divided.”

There was no immediate information on the cause of the fire or the woman’s death. Firefighters arrived to find people climbing out second-story windows of the two-and-a-half story house. Nine residents and six firefighters were treated for burns and smoke inhalation.

“I’m happy I’m alive,” said Boston University sophomore Sylvan O’Sullivan, 19, one of seven residents in the basement, four of whom were home yesterday when fire struck at 6:30 a.m. “My roommate yelled, ‘Get out! There’s a fire!’ I grabbed my backpack, my pants, my laptop and a hard drive. We got out very quickly.”

Neighbors, still anxious from the January 2012 blaze that incinerated another property down to its stone foundation and left a student temporarily in a coma, said yesterday’s fire followed a long “loud” night of partying at the house.

Ross said a city law he wrote bars more than four undergraduates from living together in a single unit. The property listed as having nine bedrooms and two baths, and fire officials said the house had 19 occupants. A woman described by residents as the landlord left the scene without commenting to reporters after meeting with police. The property’s owner of record, Anna Belokurova, could not be reached for comment afterward.

Inspectional Services spokeswoman Lisa Timberlake said city inspectors were dispatched to the scene and the department will be reviewing its records of the property today.