Overnight fire displaces dozens of students

By Jaime Lutz and Amanda Cedrone, Globe Correspondents

A 3-alarm fire tore through an apartment building near Northeastern University early this morning displacing more than 40 people, many of them college students, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department said.

Officials said the fire, which began just after 2:30 a.m. at 90 Westland Ave, quickly spread throughout the building. The 6-story structure has a convenience store and sandwich shop on its first floor and apartments on the upper levels. Spokesman Steve MacDonald said firefighters do not yet know where in the building the fire started.

Residents were evacuated and there were no injuries, according to MacDonald. But the damage to the roof will make the complex unlivable for some time.

When firefighters arrived at the building, known locally as Cappy’s Corner, they saw heavy fire burning through the roof, MacDonald said. About 75 firefighters responded.

The fire was extinguished in less than an hour, though firefighters remained on the scene throughout the morning to investigate the cause of the blaze, he said. They do not believe the fire was suspicious.

The fire department could not say when the residents -- many of them students at nearby universities including Northeastern, Wentworth Institute of Technology and Berklee College of Music -- will be able to move back in.

“It all depends on the property owners, their dealings with insurance companies, the scope of the damage. It could be months,” MacDonald said. “It’s hard to say right now. It’s too early to tell.”

This morning about a dozen students milled around the sidewalk outside the building, some with their belongings stuffed in garbage bags. Firefighters, they said, had allowed them back into their apartments briefly to collect personal items.

Northeastern sophomore Justin Miller, 19, a Darien, CT native had just moved into the building on Saturday. Less than 49 hours later, in the middle of the night, he heard the fire alarm go off, followed by screams from his neighbors. He could smell smoke and quickly left his fifth-floor apartment.

Miller was among the students who went back in to fetch his belongings with help from his mother, Kim.

The two tried to stay positive.

“We’re going to call the school and see if Northeastern can give him temporary housing,” Kim Miller said.