‘You didn’t have a second to think’: Residents flee fire at University Inn

Matthew Brown

Kent firefighters stand outside of the burned apartment at University Inn on South Water Street after putting out the fire on May 2, 2023.

Isabella Schreck and Abigail Forbes
May 2, 2023

Hannah Fuller and Colin Gray ran past their neighbor’s University Inn apartment as black smoke spewed out of the front door of the seventh-floor unit.

A Ravenna fire chief tells Hannah Fuller, at left sitting on the step, that a warming center is open at the Trinity Lutheran Church down the street. Fuller lives in a seventh-floor apartment at University Inn on South Water Street in Kent and had to evacuate during a fire this morning in an apartment three doors down from hers. At far left is Colin Gray, who lives with her in the apartment. They were both worried about the status of their two cats. (Susan Kirkman Zake)

“In that situation, you’re just panicked, you have no idea what to do,” said Fuller, who has lived in the building for about a year and a half. “We saw the fire guys on the seventh floor, and they’re like ‘Oh, come, come!’ And I was like ‘Oh, OK.’ You didn’t have a second to think. It was close to the stairs – it could be going down there. You just don’t know.”

The fire, which residents said was started by an elderly man who threw a lit cigarette or cigar into his room’s trash can, broke out around 10:30 a.m. inside the apartment building at 540 S. Water St. 

Jeremy Brown, who works in maintenance for the building, said the older man who started the fire has a caregiver during the day, but he’s alone at night. 

University Inn manager Cindy Gilbert helped the man, who suffered a stroke “a while ago,” out of his room during the fire. Brown said the man had some burns on his face. 

“When I went up there, I went into the apartment and got him out of the apartment,” Gilbert said. “He was just standing there. I felt so bad.” 

Fire alarms went off in the building around 10:30 a.m., Brown said. He said all the apartments have concrete walls, so the fire should just be contained to the man’s apartment alone. 

Fire trucks from Kent, Stow, and other departments fill the street in front of University Inn in response to the fire on May 2, 2023. (Matthew Brown)

Residents were evacuated from the building and waited outside while fire departments from Kent, Ravenna, Rootstown and other surrounding areas investigated and stopped the fire. 

This is the second fire in nearly three years at the University Inn. In August 2020, a kitchen fire started in the building manager’s apartment. 

David Fontes, who has lived in the University Inn for four years, said his second-floor apartment was not affected by the first fire. He said he is not “too worried” about potential damage from the fire because today’s fire occurred five floors up. 

Fontes heard fire alarms begin to go off while he watched television, so he grabbed some belongings and waited outside with other residents. 

“Earlier, it was just blazing, and it was just going all over the place,” Fontes said. “I guess I just tried to keep calm.” 

University Inn residents return to their apartments after firefighters give the all-clear after extinguishing the fire on May 2, 2023. (Matthew Brown)

Trinity Lutheran Church, located about half a block down from the building, offered a warm space, coffee and donuts for residents while they waited to go back into their apartments. 

Residents were allowed back in around 11:50 a.m. 

Abigail Forbes is digital content director. Contact her at [email protected]. Isabella Schreck is editor-in-chief. Contact her at [email protected].