Fire Evacuation An Inconvenience During Finals Week At FIU

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter 

SWEETWATER (CBSMiami) -- It's an inconvenience for more than 500 Florida International University (FIU) students forced out of their apartments after a fire broke out early Tuesday morning.

"I was in my room and a police man came into my apartment and said we had to evacuate," said student David Romero.

The fire started at around 1 a.m. at a building located at 737 SW 109th Avenue. All the students evacuated from 109 Tower, a privately owned building across FIU that houses students.

A friend of the students who live in the apartment where the fire started said they had been cooking.

"Somebody was cooking about 1 o'clock had oil on the pan and it got very hot. It was smoking and some people said throw it in the sink and the grease fire set off the fire alarm and the sprinklers," said student David Miller.

The students were told to get out and given a few minutes to grab some of their personal belongings. As of 7 a.m., they had not been let back in.

FIU president Mark Rosenberg stopped by to speak with students and to let them know the university is doing all they can to help.

"Any problem for students is a problem for our university,"said Rosenberg. "We are taking provisions at the university for the students displaced by the small fire. They will be provided with food at the university as well as showers to clean up and get back to class."

That is a priority for all the students who are in the middle of finals.

"I have a final tomorrow. I am in law school. This is terrible. All my books are upstairs. I don't have a wallet," said Miller.

"I grab my books but I want to shower and sleep. I have to take a test at 1 o'clock," said student Sofia Gasca.

At last check, engineers were going through the building to see if they could allow students back inside.