Fire damages Union Square

Senior Brian Gosser made it home from class Thursday afternoon to discover his apartment in flames.\nEverything he owned was being destroyed, but that fact set in much later. During those first few moments, his immediate instinct was to retrieve his cat, Poncho. He opened the door and entered the building, but made it as far as the staircase before returning outside. \n"It was completely black and hot, it singed my hair," Gosser said. "I couldn't do anything, so I watched it burn. I have no idea what we're going to do."\nAcross the street dozing, senior Matthew Culp was shaken awake by his roommate, who noticed the fire through his window. They grabbed a small extinguisher from their kitchen to squelch a minor flame, but when they arrived outside, they were unprepared to handle the situation.\n"When we got outside, it looked a lot worse. The door and the trim were catching on fire. As soon as I looked in the door, it was an inferno, totally orange," Culp said. "So someone called 911."\nCulp organized his neighbors to move their cars from the parkway so the trucks could enter unhindered and began to alert neighbors of the burning apartment.\nNeighbor Joe Phillips, a sophomore, recalled his attempt to exit his apartment with his ferret.\n"I was sleeping and I heard someone say 'fire.' I thought it was smoke coming out of the kitchen, but when I opened the door there were flames spreading across the side [of the patio]. So I jumped off the side of the deck," Phillips said.\nBloomington Fire Department received the call at 2:22 p.m., according to Battalion Chief Mark Webb, who arrived minutes after to fight the flames in Apartment O of the Union Square Apartments on East Tenth Street. Four students: Gosser; Stephanie Harrison; Jamie Wilken and Ben Gettinger lived in the apartment, but none were home when the fire began. No one was injured.\n"I was really impressed with how quickly the fire department got here," Culp said. "If they didn't get here so quickly, the whole place would have been gone."\nAfter a cursory survey of the area, Webb speculated that the flames may have originated in the basement, worked their way upstairs and into the attic of the third floor. \n"The fire vented itself through the windows, up the eve and up into the attic," Webb said. "We had to pull down the ceilings of the upstairs bedrooms to make sure it didn't travel any further."\nThe building where the fire originated had its power shut down, and the residents were unable to re-enter their homes until an electrician arrived to double check residencies for safety, said Susan Goldsworth, Property Manager. Apartment O's residents could not re-enter because tarp was to be put over the area preserve it for the investigation.\n"Our first priority is to make sure everyone's safe and that the Red Cross will take care of everyone's needs for tonight," she said. "Half of the building should be able to move back in, but I'd like to have an electrician in first just to make sure."\nCaptain Jean Magrane recovered the deceased cat in the an upstairs bedroom that received the least amount of fire damage. She said it is common for a domestic animal to seek low ground or find its way into a snug area during a crisis.\n"It was underneath a bed lodged on top of a suitcase," she said.\nShe attempted CPR, but admitted it was clear it had succumb to smoke inhalation.\nGrosser's roommate Stephanie Harrison stood in tears, looking on the blackened exterior of her home. The paneling had been stripped, now revealing charred insulation. Her only source of solace came when Ed Vande Sande, Red Cross Director of Disaster and Volunteer Services, brought her a Ty stuffed teddy bear that she clutched with a bittersweet smile. \n"What the Red Cross does in situations like these is to take care of the displaced and their immediate emergency needs," Vande Sande said.\nThey also provided water and snacks for the firefighters and took the names of all those unable to return to their apartments to find them housing for Thursday evening.\nThe Office of the Dean of Students was present at the scene to help victims. Assistant Dean Suzanne Phillips spoke with the residents and provided other services for needs the Red Cross had not fulfilled.\n"We want to make sure the students have their needs covered," she said. "We're there if they need a place to stay, food, new books or help speaking with their professors -- though I'm sure they will all understand. This is very sad."\nNeighbor and close friend Amanda Tuttle, a sophomore, folded her hands and with downcast eyes spoke of her friends' situation.\n"They're great people," she said. "It's so sad that something like this would happen to them"