"It was pretty much a total loss," said Assistant Chief Mike Zlogar of the Amherst Fire Department. "The house was pretty well gutted."
The fire began at about 9:45 on Friday night when the jack-o-lantern ignited the fire in a fuel tank on the house's front porch, according to Zlogar.
"It was one of the fastest-moving fires I've seen in my entire life," said Matt Lelacheur, who is a senior at UMass and lives across the street from the house. "It took two to five minutes and the front porch was completely engulfed."
Lelacheur said that one of the residents burst through his front door and asked him and his roommates for a fire extinguisher because their own extinguisher was empty. Lelacheur did not have an extinguisher.
Chris McKenna, who is also a UMass senior and lives with Lelacheur, said that they decided to try and help by using buckets of water. "By the time we got the first bucket out there, the whole porch was gone," he said.
Zlogar said that the fire department received a call about the fire at 9:50 on Friday night and respond with a total of 35 crew members on the scene and four fire engines, including a ladder truck.
"The police response was fantastic," said Lelacheur. "The fire department was ... a little slower."
Zlogar said that what was essentially the complete destruction of the building was the first total loss since the Hampshire College fire in April.
"They're going to end up [demolishing] the building. We don't have a lot of these large fires in town," said Zlogar. "We run maybe three of these a year."
"I've never seen anything like it before," said McKenna.
Zlogar added that the fire was particularly destructive. "It was very extensive in that it went through the front door to the second floor," he said.
Though the fire engulfed the porch quickly, the house burned much more slowly and crews remained on the scene until after two in the morning, according to Zlogar. But they were able to contain the fire with an hour of their arrival.
Crews had to remain for what Zlogar called overhaul, "pulling walls out and finding the hidden fires."
The danger of smoldering fires was particularly high because it was "an old house with hidden spaces," according to Zlogar. "The older type with some of the light wood construction presents a real smoldering problem."
As a result, Zlogar said that a stand-by fire crew remained at the house until seven in the morning. "We had wooden shingles that smoldered and burned," he said. "That goes on for quite a long time."
Zlogar said that he stayed at the site until 4:30 a.m. when they concluded the investigation of the house.
Zlogar added that the owners of the house returned on Saturday morning to look for any belongings that could be salvaged. "Three out of five lost pretty much everything," he said.
All of the residents of the house were home when the fire broke out Friday night. They escaped the burning house with only the clothes they were wearing.
The owners were only allowed to look through the rubble the next morning. "Throughout the night we held it for security reasons," he said.
The fire also damaged the residents' car, which was parked next to the building.
Zlogar cautioned that many fires are started by candles and that people should take more care. "We have a significant number of fires generated by candles," he said, adding that the Hampshire fire last semester was also caused by a candle.
"It was an experience I'd never forget," said Lelacheur.
Ben Surner, who is a resident of the Town of Amherst, owns the house.