For the second time this summer a fire is believed to have started on a couch as another fraternity house went ablaze Saturday night, fire investigators said

At about 5:30 p.m., the DeKalb Fire Department responded to a structure fire at the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity house, 917 Greenbrier Road. Firefighters entered the building and found heavy heat and smoke before making their way to the source of the fire, a couch on the second floor inside the house’s common room, said DeKalb Fire Chief Bruce Harrison.

The fire was quickly extinguished and a search of the house found no occupants. No firefighters or residents were injured in the fire, according to a DeKalb Fire Department news release. Twelve people who were living there for the summer were displaced from the house and will be moved to the Stevenson Residence Hall, Harrison said.

The fire caused about $150,000 in damage, Harrison said, but because the house has a masonry structure there was not a large amount of structure damage. DeKalb Fire Department and State Fire Marshall investigators are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire, which as of Monday afternoon is still undetermined, Harrison said.

The initial call about the fire was directed to the fire department’s non-emergency business number, with the caller claiming to be a member of the fraternity who was out of town. Harrison said such a call is a bit unusual and is “being looked into.”

On May 6, 13 members of the Omega Delta fraternity were displaced after a fire at their house, 835 Greenbrier Road, down the street from the location of Saturday’s fire. Harrison said the cause of the Omega Delta fire is still undetermined, and he doesn’t see any connection between the two fires at this point.

Members of the NIU crisis response team were meeting with fraternity members Monday afternoon at the scene to help with relocation, Harrison said.

The DeKalb County Chapter of the American Red Cross sent five people to the scene Saturday night to help with the displacement, said Rochelle Cripe, marketing coordinator for the DeKalb County Chapter.

The students were able to retrieve almost all of their belongings and didn’t need cloth, food or shelter, Cripe said, but were given toiletry kits to help them get by.