Cedar Rapids Jefferson graduate among those displaced by Loras College fire

A 2015 Jefferson High School graduate is among those driven out by a fire Wednesday morning on the Loras College campus.

Lucas Sedlacek's day started about 5:13 a.m., when he was awakened by blaring fire alarms and pounding on his dormitory room door.

'I thought, ‘This can't really be real, how can this be real?'” said Sedlacek, a freshman on the Loras wrestling team. 'I opened (my door) and they told me there was a fire. ... I ran into my room, threw some clothes on and ran out.”

Sedlacek said he ran from his second-floor room, out of the building and into the parking lot. He could see smoke and sparks hitting the ground.

'The roof was just engulfed in flames,” he said.

Dubuque Fire Marshal Mark Burkle said crews were called to the Visitation Complex dorm at 5:13 a.m. Firefighters encountered flames coming from the roof of the four-story building. By the time of their arrival, the resident assistant on duty and a maintenance worker had made sure everyone was out of the building, Burkle said.

Firefighters attacked the blaze from two ladder trucks and got the fire under control in about an hour, Burkle said. Burkle said the fire spread from the roof into the fourth floor, which eventually collapsed onto the third floor.

There were no injuries to firefighters or the approximately 45 students who lived in the building, Burkle said.

Loras College is a Catholic institution that has about 1,600 students, according to its website.

Investigators are now working to determine the cause of the fire, he said.

'We are investigating the possibility of a lightning strike,” Burkle said. 'We have nothing to base that on right now, other than the storms rolling through. It's still under investigation.”

While the fire did not reach his room, Sedlacek said, the gallons upon gallons of water used to extinguish the blaze did.

'It was pretty flooded,” he said. 'I won't be able to live there any more this year.”

Sedlacek said he was able to grab some clothing and a few essentials, but other personal belongings - his laptop, TV and notes from classes - are probably destroyed.

Loras has found temporary residences for students and will find a permanent home for them soon, Sedlacek said. Spring Break starts Friday.

While Sedlacek will have to deal with the loss of his belongings and getting through the semester without his notes, he's trying to look on the bright side.

'It's not something I wanted to deal with today,” he said. 'But, it got me out of classes. That's a positive.”