Smoke alarms awakened college students early this morning sending them out into the bitter cold.
The Fire began in Jay’s Deli along Spruce Street near 13th Street in Center City Philadelphia.
The Deli is located on the ground floor of a high-rise that serves as dorms for University of the Arts students.
Fire broke out shortly after 3:30 a.m. Tuesday in the deli. 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 drill 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 hour to clear the scene.
No injuries were reported.
Firefighters didn’t immediately reveal the cause and severity of the blaze.
Photo Credit: NBC10.com