Zachary Ransom awoke the morning of July 17 to a police officer in his bedroom, telling him… Zachary Ransom awoke the morning of July 17 to a police officer in his bedroom, telling him he had a few minutes to evacuate his house.

“I started hearing these screams. I grabbed [my] shorts, my cell phone and my paycheck,” he said. Ransom, a Pitt senior and tenant of 303 Meyran Ave., said that he went outside and saw flames coming out of 307 Meyran Avenue, a neighboring house.

“There were like 10 fire trucks,” Ransom said, “and no one could put out the fire.”

Mario El Nimri, a 20-year-old resident of the house, was trapped in the upper floor and died in the blaze.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, El Nimri worked at Joe Mama’s in Oakland.

Anelisa Miller,a co-worker of El Nimri’s, told the Tribune-Review that he “was just trying to make a life for himself.”

El Nimri was not a student.

Pittsburgh fire chief Michael Huss said that the fire originated in the living room of 307 at 3:58 a.m. Huss said the cause of the fire has been ruled accidental.

He said that 307 Meyran Ave. was destroyed, and both 305 and 309 suffered moderate to significant damage.

Victoria Hawk, a 21-year-old Pitt student, was subletting next door when the fire destroyed her room.

“I remember looking out our window and seeing smoke on the third floor of that house,” she said.

Ransom said that onlookers watched the fire spread quickly to neighboring houses, causing many students to worry about the safety of their Oakland homes.

After the firecrews put out the blaze, the Pitt Police took Hawk aside and asked if she had anywhere to stay.

“We went to see [Pitt Police Chief] Tim Delaney, and he was really great to us,” she said. “He got us some nice clothes to wear because we didn’t have any at the time.”

She also was able to stay in a room in the Litchfield Towers until she found a new place to stay. She moved out about a week ago.

Hawk said that of the six people living in that house, about half lost some of their stuff, while the other half was not so fortunate.

“For the other half of us, we pretty much lost everything,” Hawk said.

Huss recommended that students take a proactive stance in preventing house fires, citing safety measures that would protect both students and their houses.

His advice was to “remind [students] to make sure that smoke detectors are working,” adding that the fire department discourages the use of candles and “those types of things” in both on and off-campus apartments.

Editor’s note: Victoria Hawk works for the business staff of The Pitt News.