COM Reopens, Classes as Usual Today Friday’s fire did an estimated $500,000 in damage

Classes resume at COM Monday morning, following a three-alarm blaze that broke out on Friday, causing extensive damage to student-run radio station WTBU’s studio. Photo courtesy of Twitter user @JesseCosta3

The College of Communication reopens Monday and scheduled classes will be held there after a three-alarm fire at the school Friday morning closed the building for the weekend. COM has remained off limits since then so that staff from Facilities Management & Planning could spend the weekend cleaning up the site. The building was opened briefly late Friday afternoon and Saturday so students and faculty who had had to evacuate when the fire broke out could get whatever they had left behind.

Water and smoke damage from the fire, believed to have been caused by an equipment malfunction at student-run radio station WBTU on the building’s third floor, will require an estimated $500,000 in repairs, according to the Boston Fire Department.

Six people—three students, two BU Police Department officers, and a firefighter—were transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Friday with non-life-threatening injuries, mostly from smoke inhalation. They were subsequently released. At least 15 police, fire, and ambulance vehicles responded to the blaze. A story in the Boston Globe said the Boston Fire Department had to call in extra help because “firefighters had to climb to the top floor and frequently change their oxygen tanks.”

Between 20 and 40 people were in the building when the fire broke out about 8:30 a.m., and all were safely evacuated. The University sent out an alert to the BU community urging people to avoid the area. The fire was extinguished at approximately 9:35 a.m. High-volume fans were then used to clear the building of potentially dangerous fumes emitted from chemicals in the studio’s soundproofing material when it began to burn. MBTA B Line trolley service was temporarily suspended from Kenmore Square to Packard’s Corner during the fire.

The blaze caused extensive damage to the WTBU studio. The radio station has had to suspend broadcasting until a temporary studio can be located.

“There’s been a tremendous outpouring of support from WTBU alums,” says station faculty advisor Anne Donohue (COM’88), a COM associate professor of journalism. “We’ve heard from people offering to rewire the studio and from people offering to raise money to help rebuild.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.