UW-Platteville students Corey Connolly, Shawn Connolly, Kyle Erickson, Andy Karnick and Andy Lanza, whose house caught on fire Sept. 14, were given some good news when it was announced that nearly all their damaged belongings will be covered through rental insurance.

The insurance will cover damages from fire on the second story of their house two weeks ago. Nearly all the belongings of the Connollys, Karnick and Lanza were lost while those of Erickson, whose room was on the first story, suffered only minor smoke damage.

The administration is still debating the refunding of the students on-campus properties such as their textbooks.

“We tried to talk to the campus about textbooks and stuff, but we don’t know if we are going to get any compensation for that,” Lanza said. “We are going to sit down with the dean of students Rich Egley sometime in the future and go from there.”

The Textbook Center usually stays clear of giving people refunds on textbooks that are damaged.

“The Textbook Center maybe gets one request a year to refund books under extraordinary purposes,” Mary Larson, manager of the Textbook Center, said. “There are a lot of factors involved, and while we usually do not refund students whose books have been damaged, we have to look at things on a case by-case basis and this case- involves a lot of money”

The textbooks were damaged in the fire that broke out for unknown reasons Sept. 14 on 475 Adams St.

“Myself and another roommate were downstairs and we heard some crashing coming from upstairs,” Erickson said. “When we opened the door to Andy’s room a huge rush of black smoke and heat came rushing out.”

The two roommates debated putting out the fire before quickly realizing it was out of control.

“We just called 911 and got out of there as quickly as possible,” Erickson said. “When we got outside, the fire was already coming out the back windows.”

Following the fire, the students were quickly aided by the Tri-State Red Cross.

“We provided some food and clothing assistance along with a comfort kit,” Emily Szeszycki, director of public support for the Red Cross said. “The comfort kit gives them some basic hygiene supplies, little things that you might need and some storage containers for that which was salvageable.”

The students hope to hear back from the university concerning the textbook fees within a week.