Updated 8:34 p.m.: A fire broke out at approximately 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at a house composed of two apartments located at 956 Division St.

Only two residents of the house, both Eastern students, were in the building at the time. Neither were injured.

Connor Walsh, a political science and international studies major, has lived in the house since August. Walsh’s roommate, Mikel Storm, a management information systems major, has lived in the house for about two and a half years.

Fire Chief Pat Goodwin said the Charleston Fire Department arrived on the scene, located a few blocks from the station, within three minutes after Walsh dialed 911.

The blaze was contained within 35 minutes.

“We’ve been on the scene for 50 minutes and the fire is contained – we’ve just got a few hotspots,” Goodwin said.

He said the cause of the fire is unknown.

“We haven’t even started the investigation on that end yet,” Goodwin said.

He said the damage was concentrated at the northwest corner of the building, and from the street, bystanders were able to see the siding on the nearest building had been badly warped.

“I was literally in the shower and my roommate came running up the stairs yelling – I thought he was just messing around,” Walsh said. “I smelled smoke and I came outside and saw that the whole back of the house was in flames, so I called 911.”

Storm declined to comment.

Ashley Wells, of 16 West Polk Ave., and her fiancé Charles Horn, were in their yard at the time when they initially saw the fire.

“We were outside playing with the kids and my fiancé looked over and was like ‘Oh my God,'” Wells said. “We saw the neighbors run over and the house went up within five minutes.”

Wells said the fire started near the building’s rear entrance.

“There was a TV and a couch sitting there and they just went up,” Wells said. She said she saw the two residents, who were home at the time, flee from the building.

Jason Hardimon can be reached at 581-7942 or at jrhardimon2@eiu.edu.

From the Easel(Illustration by David Thill/The Daily Eastern News)

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