Adams Fire Damage

Officials have estimated that damage from a fire Monday night a Adams House will total $4500, an official of the Cambridge Fire Department said yesterday.

The fire department believes that a soldering instrument left outside the tutorial office by construction workers caused the fire, said Lt. Michael Travis.

The fire, confined to an office in B Entry, forced evacuation of Adams residents from two entries and the dining hall and brought seven fire companies to Bow St.

Most of the damage resulted from fire fighters breaking through an outside wall to extinguish the flames, house maintenance officials said. The damaged office was boarded shut and was not open to inspection yesterday.

In another incident yesterday, firefighters responded to a false alarm at Adams. A maintenance worker who refused to be identified speculated that fumes from a kitchen exhaust fan could have triggered a smoke detector.