Students' Church Street home burns down; no one injured

The four students who lived at 506 Church St. always had friends over.

So it’s a wonder only one person was inside when the house caught on fire at 3 p.m. Monday.

Junior Austin Monroe got out in time, uninjured. He was about to take a shower when he heard glass breaking, then opened the door to find the front part of his house engulfed in flames.

He called the fire department as he escaped out the back. He had his phone, his ChapStick, his sweat pants and his T-shirt, and as he watched the roof collapse, it became clear that’s all that was salvaged.

The Chapel Hill Fire Department arrived within three minutes, but after flames and fire hoses, the house was a charred skeleton. The department did not determine a cause, but said the fire likely started in the attic.

LeQuentin Wilson, 17, watched from his window a couple houses away as black smoke billowed. He remembers when he was about 7 years old, when Jeff Galloway built the house.

Wilson would sometimes help mow the lawn. He walked through the lawn on his way home Sunday night.

“When I saw it, I was shaking,” Wilson said.

Galloway came to the scene, too. He still owns the house, and rented it to the students. Some recontracted for next year.

“The house is a house. The house can burn to the ground. I’m just glad they’re okay,” he said.

The students had many offers of places to stay for the night. None of them have renters insurance, they said. They supported each other and tried to keep from crying again as they looked at what remained.

“Charred. Cajun. Does it look Cajun right now?” said senior Jessi Harris, who’s lived there for two years.

Her friend, Jamila Reddy, who parks there, reminded her of the new futon, the Mario video game, the new groceries.

“I’m sure Trader Joe’s, if you told them your house burnt to a crisp, they would give you the groceries,” she said.

Resident Sheina Taub thought of all her lost art, all of the sketch books she’d ever drawn in. She wrote songs in her head and thought of how everything else seems so trivial when your house burns down.

“It’s kind of a relief,” she said. “I thought I was having a hard time. But I wasn’t. It was just life.”



Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.