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Juan Flores was shopping Saturday afternoon when he learned that a large fire had declared in his Fenway neighborhood.
Avoid the surroundings of Hemenway Street, read Flores in a publication in an online group of friends.
"I had the impression of waiting, I live there, but damn it," said Flores, 30, on Saturday night looking at the charred building located at 104 Stn. Hemenway, where he moved in September.
The seven-alarm fire destroyed the five-story building on Saturday afternoon, displacing up to 100 residents. Many were students at Berklee College of Music, Emerson College and Northeastern University, officials said.
Flores, a Berklee graduate this summer, is one of many people facing an uncertain future.
His roommate grabbed everything he could (slippers, guitar, laptop) and tossed on the door, Flores said.
But Flores was not at home to recover one of his objects. For now, Flores plans to stay with friends. But he does not know yet what he will do if he can not go back to the apartment.
"I have no clue, no idea," he says.
Another resident also said he was unsure of the next step.
The student, a Berklee cadet who asked that his name not be used, said that he was having lunch in his apartment when he noticed a strange odor permeating the air.
"I just thought it was a gas leak or something like that. . . then we looked out the window and there was smoke everywhere, "he said during a phone interview Saturday night. "I grabbed my phone and keys thinking I would be back in five minutes."
When residents left the building, he realized that he would stay more than five minutes outside.
"I wish I could grab one of my backpacks or one of my guitars," he said, adding that the timing could not be worse – the Berklee students were preparing mid-term. "Yes [my music gear] all water is damaged, there is no way that it works. "
A number of music students who lived in the building had expensive music equipment, he said.
"Most of these plays are like small private studios," he said. "Some people have spent their lives saving on this equipment."
The fire also affected students living in neighboring buildings.
A Berklee dormitory located at 98 Hemenway Street was evacuated and students were not allowed to return Saturday night, the college said in a statement.
Gus Lee, an 18-year-old freshman from Northeastern University, was in his dorm in front of the building's fire when he smelled a slight smoke. He first thought that it was okay to stay in his room, but he heard fire alarms go off.
"At that time, I said," Oh, I should go, "he said as he headed to his dorm room on Saturday night.
Officials asked the students at the residence to go to the basement and go out into an alley, Lee said.
"The whole building and especially all around was smoky," he said. "It was also very windy. There were waves of smoke. "
The northeastern authorities were working near the scene Saturday to accommodate the displaced students. In a statement, officials at Berklee said that they were contacting students who lived in the building. Representatives from Emerson College could not be contacted immediately for a comment on Saturday night.
On the scene, Saturday night, a firefighter on a ladder was still watering the building.
Fire crews will stay on the scene all night, hitting hot spots, said Marc Sanders, spokesman for the fire department.
Monica Grady, a Boston Conservatory student, stopped to watch her as she was walking home to Symphony Road with grocery bags. She was in the street at the Museum of Fine Arts when the fire broke out, she said.
"It's very disappointing," she said. "It could have just as easily arrived at my apartment."
Alejandro Serrano can be reached at [email protected].
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