<p>The only reason I'm posting this terribly sad story is just to remind everyone to make sure your kids have LOTS of smoke alarms in their off campus housing. They should have carbon monoxide detectors too! Just bring them when you visit and put them in. In a related article, they state that 83% of all college student fire fatalities occur in off campus housing. </p>
<p>This fire occurred on a street I use a "cut through" often. It is a nice street, in a part of town with lots of college kids. It's not what you would picture as college slum-lord housing. While they haven't said anything about the origin of the fire yet, and this house did apparently have a smoke alarm, I'm just so nervous about some of the housing our kids live in when at college. I looked at my husband after reading this and said, I guess (son #2) better get that RA application done or he'll have a roommate next year in a dorm. (He has a single at WPI this year.)</p>
<p>RIT students who died in fire remembered as achievers
Democrat</a> & Chronicle: Local News</p>
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Killed in the fire were Seth Policzer, 21, of Parkland, Fla., a fourth-year computer engineering student, and Syed Ali Turab, 21, a fourth-year communications student from New Milford, N.J.</p>
<p>A third student, Michael DiCocco, was in guarded condition at Strong Memorial Hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman. DiCocco, a fourth-year industrial design student from Canastota, Madison County, was rescued by firefighters, taken down a ladder from a second-floor window... </p>
<p>In many ways, Policzer and Turab were the very type of students who have helped shape RIT into the recognized university it has become. Both were from out of state and found a welcoming atmosphere at the campus; both were academically oriented achievers, yet both enjoyed the friendships and joie de vivre that college offered beyond the classroom rigors. "He really loved the college experience," said Perinton resident Kevin Foody, a quality assurance manager at Blue Tie Inc., where Turab worked this past summer for college credit. "He liked hanging out with his friends. He liked going to class."</p>
<p>Policzer also carried a sturdy course load, participating in a five-year computer engineering program that leads to a bachelor's and master's degree with its culmination.</p>
<p>"Anybody who can get on the (five-year master's) track, that means their performance is really outstanding," said Kenneth Hsu, a computer engineering professor at RIT...</p>
<p>The first call of a fire at the home came in about 2:40 a.m., and within minutes firefighters were at the scene. Three people had managed to escape; two of them leapt from a porch onto the hood of a car in the driveway. While anxious and distraught, the three were able to tell firefighters where the others might be trapped inside, said fire Capt. Kenneth Gippe.
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<p>House had history of landlord violations
Democrat</a> & Chronicle: Local News
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After the deadly fire at 33 Upton Park, City Hall took action late Friday afternoon to vacate several other apartments owned by the same landlord.</p>
<p>Code inspectors had been unable to get inside the Upton Park residence for more than a year, a top city official said, and have levied nearly $9,000 in fines against landlord Cataldo Arbore...</p>
<p>Nationwide, 83 percent of all fatal fires involving college students occurred in off-campus housing, according to Campus Firewatch, a national newsletter distributed to fire officials, insurance agents and others.</p>
<p>Forty percent of RIT's 16,000 students live off campus. The school is working to expand its housing options — including more housing that caters to upperclassmen and graduate students. The two who died were fourth-year students.</p>
<p>"These were 21-year-old students, and upperclassmen enjoying living off campus and being part of the city," said RIT spokesman Bob Finnerty.
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