The Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) house early Monday morning became the second fraternity residence in two weeks to be shut down following a fire alarm.
According to Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sgt. Robert McCarthy, TUPD and Somerville Fire Department at 12:25 a.m. on Monday responded to a fire alarm at the AEPi residence at 98 Professors Row. They discovered that a water leak in the ceiling had compromised the fire alarm. "It was due to a leak in the ceiling, which was affecting the fire alarm," McCarthy said.
"We had a leak in the house directly above a fire alarm, and it kept setting the fire alarm off," sophomore Abe Stein, president of AEPi, said.
McCarthy said that the fire department officials decided that the residence was not suitable for occupation due to the faulty alarm. "Somerville Fire determined that the house could not be occupied," he said.
Stein explained that the entire alarm system had to be turned off, meaning that the residents had to temporarily evacuate the building.
"We have an old fire alarm system, and it had to be shut down," he said. "They had to shut down the whole system and couldn't shut only one fire alarm off. Until that's fixed, we can't be living in the house."
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, who is currently serving as the interim director of fraternity and sorority affairs, further explained that the problem was largely due to water damage.
"I know they've been told they can't be in there and that the repairs include a lot of what was said to be water getting into the house through a roof problem, and it came down through the walls into the electrical and safety panels," Reitman said. "Until all of that can be repaired, they've been told they can't live there."
McCarthy said that the residents had to find alternative accommodations. "All the students were given the choice of finding some friends to stay with or getting alternative housing through the university," he said.
Stein said that most residents were currently living with friends both on and off campus. "The brothers are living in friends' houses and dormitories," he said.
The landlord of the house was notified, along with a health inspector who inspected the house later the same day.
McCarthy said the date on which the students could move back to the house was uncertain. "As of now, they have no place to live," he said. "The health inspector is the only one who can give them authority to go back in there."
Stein said that the landlord is working on repairing the house, and until then the brothers will not be able to return.
"We don't know when we can move back in," he said. "It's whenever the system is fixed."
In the meantime, Reitman added that some of the members of AEPi are talking to the Office of Residential Life and Learning about renting space in dormitories until they can move back in.
"The fall is always tight, but [in] the spring, because of study abroad and the prevalence of it, there's usually some flexibility [for] when things like this arrive," he said.
Brothers living in the Delta Upsilon house also had to leave their residence last Sunday after a health inspector from the Somerville Board of Health shut it down due to health concerns.
Reitman explained that the university had nothing to do with the decisions about the houses involved.
"The closure of both of those facilities was not by the university's safety officials; it was by the city, and so the city has to re-inspect them and give them permission to reoccupy the space once they're satisfied that the identified problems have been addressed," he said.
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Corinne Segal and Ellen Kan contributed reporting to this article.
