Fire Below Dorms Wakes Sleeping Students

Smoke alarms startled sleeping college students early this morning sending them out into the bitter cold.

Fire broke out in Jay’s Deli along Spruce Street near 13th Street in Center City Philadelphia around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The Deli is located on the ground floor of the Spruce Residence Hall high-rise that serves as dorms for University of the Arts students.

Fire alarms woke sleeping students who at first thought it might have been a drill.

“I kind of thought it was my alarm going off but it wasn’t,” said student Brittany Semmel.

“Initially everyone thought it was a drill… then the fire trucks came,” said student Alexis Bixler.

The alarm sent to students out on the sidewalk with temps in the teens.

“Throw on jackets, blankets, just whatever we could find – some people didn’t have shoes on – we just decided to run,” said Terra Bergamy.

Students were taken into another dorm to wait it out as it took firefighters about an 45 to clear the scene and allow the students back into their homes.

No injuries were reported.

Firefighters didn’t immediately reveal the cause and severity of the blaze.

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