The long-standing men's volleyball house caught fire Wednesday morning, but no one was injured and the damage was contained to the kitchen.
A toaster oven caught on fire after an electric malfunction, said Robert Mead, Muncie's chief fire investigator. The fire was small, he said, and most damage was done by the smoke.
Muncie Fire Department first got the call around 10:45 a.m. to the house on the 900 block of Linden Street. There was smoke visible from the door and coming from several upstairs windows in the house, said Jason Chafin, MFD acting lieutenant.
"The property damage is significant, yet repairable," Chafin said. "That's definitely the goal, after life safety is taken into consideration."
Adam Wessel, a sophomore libero who lives in the house, said he and his four roommates were at practice during the fire. They found out about the fire five minutes after their practice ended when one of the team managers texted his roommate.
"We didn't even change, we just came over here as fast as we could," Wessel said. "We were all pretty freaked out, we didn't know how bad it was...I've never experienced something like this before, so it's definitely a shock and I'm still taking it in."
The whole house has pretty bad smoke damage, Wessel said, so they are working to find a new place to live until repairs are made. His landlord offered up a few vacant homes they could move to in the meantime, so Wessel and his roommates are going to have to haul their stuff to a new house. They were allowed to go in after the fire was put out to grab a few essentials — laptops, phone chargers and textbooks — but for the most part, it's just waiting, Wessel said.
The landlord will be renovating the kitchen, as well as painting and getting new carpeting for the house.
"This house has been one of the volleyball houses for a while now, so it's either the downfall of it and we're going to go somewhere else, or if they renovate it, maybe it'll be a new beginning," Wessel said. "I guess we'll wait and see."
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