Fire at 53 Bow Street - Floor 4


4/6/2026

At 211 a.m. on April 5, 2026 (Easter Sunday), Box 47 was transmitted for the fire on floor 4 of the 5-story Harvard University dormitory building at 53 Bow St, Randolph Hall.
 
Arriving with "smoke showing," companies established water supplies, stretched attack lines to floors 4 & 5, effected searches for occupants, and extinguished and overhauled the fire. The fire was confined to one room and contents by one operating sprinkler head.
All occupants were safely evacuated and no injuries were reported. The cause was under investigation.

 

Engines 1, 6, & 5; Ladders 1 & 3; Rescue 1; Squads 4 & 3; & Division 2 worked at the fire.
On duty: group 2
Incident Commander: DC Paul

The building was built in 1903.

Cambridge Police Officers, Harvard University Police Officers, and ProEMS medics and EMTs assisted on scene. 

Thank you again, to the staff of Cambridge Emergency Communications for coordinating response and communications.

Photos attached are courtesy of 857 Fire Photography and Cambridge Police.

Box 47 - 53 Bow Street - apparatus on street with aerial ladder deployed
First-due companies Engine 1 & Ladder 1 working at the fire on Bow Street

 

Engine Company 1 pump on Bow Street with hose lines being deployed to the fire on flloor 4
Engine 1 with hose deployed on Bow Street

 

Ladder 3 set up on Bow Street with aerial ladder deployed to the fire floor - floor 4
Ladder 3 set up with the aerial ladder deployed to the fire on floor 4 on Bow Street

 

Engine 5 Firefighter stretching an attack line to the fire on floor 4 at 53 Bow Street
A firefighter from Engine 5 stretching an attack line to the fire on floor 4

 

Cambridge Police car located on Mount Auburn St with fire apparatus in the background working at a fire on floor 4
Cambridge Police on scene providing traffic diversion and pedestrian safety at the fire on Bow Street