Dumpster Fire Forces Evacuation

Students in the Kirkland House Annex evacuated their dorms early Saturday when a dumpster in the Annex courtyard caught on fire.

Allston Burr Senior Tutor Timothy C. Harte said that the 2:20 a.m. fire caused “no significant damage.”

“This was a fairly innocuous fire,” he said. “It was not that calamitous of an event.”

Harvard police and the Cambridge Fire Department (CFD) responded to the incident after a student noticed the fire and activated the fire alarm in a nearby building.

CFD spokesperson Kevin Mannke said yesterday that the department, which extinguished the fire in about 10 minutes, had not yet determined the fire’s cause.

Harte said that only residents of the Kirkland House Annex—not all residents of Kirkland House—were evacuated because of the fire.

According to Kirkland House Superintendent Scott Haywood, who assessed the situation Saturday morning, the fire burned only the trash inside the dumpster.

—JENIFER L. STEINHARDT