A fire in Building 3 of the Aspen Glen housing complex in Hamden, Conn. forced the relocation of 30 of its residents early Tuesday morning. Some of those forced to leave are Quinnipiac students.

The Hamden Fire Department says it was a discarded cigarette on the first floor that caused the popular residence for off-campus housing to go up in flames shortly before midnight on Monday. Fire Chief David Barardesca tells Q30 News that a large portion of the left side of the building will need to be demolished due to a partial roof collapse.

“The right side of the building may be able to be saved depending on power flow,” he said. “But some of it will have to come down.” Crews were on the scene evaluating the damage on the building after the fire burned for nearly 45 minutes.

Three people were hospitalized according to Barardesca, one a pregnant women. All were released with no serious injuries.

“It took a couple of seconds,” Quinnipiac senior and Building 3 resident Theo Siggelakis said about the fire. “The wind threw the flames around. And then, it was massive.

Like others, Siggelakis came back to the apartments to collect his belongings and find somewhere else to stay. Quinnipiac Residential Life tweeted shortly after the fire that it would be assisting Quinnipiac students in providing alternative housing. His first floor apartment suffered little damage.

Quinnipiac junior Jack Pilon says that even though the units may take several months to repair and rebuild, the fact that no one was injured in the blaze outweighed all else.

“Things can be replaced,” he said. “But as long as people are doing OK afterwards and are nice and healthy and have full recovery, then at the end of the day, nothing too bad happened.”

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