A Mifflin Street house suffered $50,000 worth of damage in a fire early Sunday morning.
The Madison Fire Department reports the house, at 417 W. Mifflin, contained approximately 20 people at the time of the fire but everyone made it to safety.
No injuries were reported.
Fire crews from Station No. 1 responded to the fire at 12:54 a.m. and were able to control it by 1:06 a.m. The fire originated in a second floor bedroom and remains under investigation, the release stated.
The bedroom was padlocked due to the small party taking place and according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, fire investigators do not suspect foul play was involved.
This is the second Mifflin Street house in six months to suffer a fire. The earlier one took place during finals week in May.
Verveer said it was "very fortunate" that everyone was able to get out safely even before firefighters arrived.
According to Chris Fleck, a University of Minnesota-Duluth junior who attended a party at the house the night of the fire, there were people in the upstairs attic "party room."
Fleck said the lights went off in the attic and soon word-of-mouth helped move people out of the house without much disruption.
"There wasn't any pushing or anything like that," Fleck said, adding smoke appeared on the stairway but many people were unaware of the fire from inside the attic.
Verveer said it is scary to think that a large number of homes on Mifflin Street are wooden and date from the 19th century because these factors make them particularly susceptible to fire. These sorts of considerations go into the planning of the city's annual Mifflin Street Block Party, he added.
"It's fortunate that the fire department has been able to immediately take care of both houses on Mifflin this year," Verveer said.
The house, owned by Washington Apartments, sustained fire damage to the second floor as well as smoke and water damage to the second and third floor, a release stated.
Although the Red Cross was contacted, eight of the residents of the house will be staying with friends, the release stated.
Madison Fire Department officials were unavailable for further comment as of press time.
