CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - Cambridge firefighters battled a two-alarm blaze in a classroom building on Harvard Yard on Friday.
Crews responding to a reported fire inside Emerson Hall at 26 Harvard Yard just before noon found flames in a pipe chase and heavy smoke coming from a 3.5-story brick and wood building.
Firefighters were forced to use axes and power saws to break through the roof and battle the fire.
“The exhaust pipe from the generator goes up through a shaft in the building and somehow it started igniting some wooden structural members inside the shaft,” Cambridge Fire Chief Gerry Mahoney said, adding the issue made the fire”very difficult to access.”
Mahoney said contractors were testing the generator when the flames sparked.
No one was injured.
A similar fire broke out in a different Harvard building just a few months ago, fire officials said.
“What we need to find out as part of the investigation was, did some of that insulation fail?” Mahoney asked. “Was something not properly applied?”
The cause remains under investigation.
It is unclear if the building will be able to reopen to students in time for the end of Thanksgiving break.
No additional information has been released.
This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.
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