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Boston, MA
Hundreds of students displaced after burst pipe closes UMass Boston dorm
Local News
The university will reopen the East Residence dining hall starting Wednesday morning, UMass Boston said.
Hundreds of University of Massachusetts Boston students have been displaced since Monday after a sprinkler pipe burst causing flooding in the East Residence Hall, said the Boston school.
“My friend from down the hall on the second floor was unable to get her stuff, and she’s with me right now. We’re kind of both just displaced at the moment. I’m living out of a suitcase, and she’s living with nothing,” Simone Trainor, a sophomore at UMass Boston, told Boston.com.
According to the university, the sprinkler pipe burst on the tenth floor due to extreme cold temperatures.
“Based on initial assessments, approximately 50 rooms in the blue hallway of floors 2-10 were impacted with varying degrees of water damage,” the university said in an email to students.
Students say they received little information, some lack a place to stay
Trainor said she was in a dissection lab Monday afternoon when a classmate told her that there was an emergency at their dorm.
“I was in my lab doing dissections when a girl next to me, who also lived in East Residence Hall on the same floor as me, the second floor, told me, not by email, not by a statement from the school, but by word of mouth from another roommate, that I had ten minutes to grab my things and that a pipe burst and we were being flooded,” said Trainor.
On their way back to the dorm, she saw students walking past them with stuffed bags and suitcases.
“That’s when we knew, and we started running faster to the dorms,” Trainor said.
When Trainor arrived, she noticed a long line of students milling about her residence hall all wanting to get up to their room.
According to Trainor, police asked anyone who lived on the second floor to follow them so they could escort students to their room.
“There was water all over the stairs, and as I was walking up, the cops had flashlights,” Trainor said.
Once she made it inside her room, she said, she saw the floor covered in water.
Trainor had thirty minutes to pack herself and her roommates’ belongings before police banged on her door, telling her she had to leave.
“I’m just packing clothes into random bags that I’m finding in my room because it’s dark, and I can’t see anything. I don’t know where my clothes are. I’m just grabbing things,” Trainor said.
Once she left her dorm, no one else on her floor was allowed back in, Trainor said.
Trainor is now safely staying with a friend who lives close to UMass Boston.
Carly Martin, who said she’s a concerned UMass Boston student, said students have received little information about a timeline for being allowed back into their rooms and what conditions the rooms are in.
“Some students were unable to be placed into the universities alternative housing which has resulted in homelessness. There are cases where students have been packing into hotels, sleeping on the streets and even forced to sleep on public transportation,” Martin wrote in an email directed at Mayor Michelle Wu Tuesday evening.
In her email, Martin shared what she said were comments from impacted students.
“If you get caught sleeping in the common rooms in West, they’ll kick you out. It’s just so funny to me that we were made homeless overnight, are getting no information, and then can’t even sleep in one of the few options we have at the moment,” said one student said.
“I was in a conference room and I got woken up at 1 am and told i have to leave by 7 am or theres gonna be issues,” wrote another.
UMass Boston did not answer questions Tuesday night about students being left without a place to sleep.
How UMass Boston plans to help displaced students
The Boston Fire Department and the State Building Inspector extended the “no occupancy” status for the dorm due to unsafe electrical systems, said the support website.
“The building will remain closed for the next several days. The building will remain closed to allow facilities and remediation teams to repair damage, restore fire suppression systems, remove excess water, and fully assess the extent of the impact within the hall,” UMass Boston said.
Once officials have deemed the building safe for students to enter, students will have supervised access to retrieve essential items and there will be limited entry to specific floors or wings, the university said in an email sent to students.
The school has provided essential items like towels, bed linens or blankets, pillows, and cell phone chargers to impacted students, the university wrote on its website.
East Residence Hall hosts the only traditional dining hall, which was closed immediately after the flooding. The dining hall has been determined to be safe, and will reopen Wednesday morning, the university said in an email to students.
On Monday evening, the university sent out an email to impacted students notifying them of temporary housing at the UMass Amherst, Charles River Campus in Newton.
Students who moved to the neighboring campus have access to shuttles that return to UMass Boston every hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., the school wrote.
The school is actively looking for dorm locations closer to the main campus, university officials said.
“We know that waiting for updates, especially when answers are uncertain, is stressful. We are committed to sharing information as soon as it is confirmed and to communicate clearly, even when timelines are still evolving,” the university said in an email to students.
A 20-year-old Boston man is facing a series of charges after prosecutors say he shot at Boston Police officers during an attempted stop in Dorchester before leading them on a foot chase through neighborhood backyards.
Rasiel Carbuccia was arraigned in Dorchester District Court Thursday on a list of charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying without a license and possession of a large capacity firearm, stemming from the Wednesday night incident near Devon and Laredo streets.
Opened fire with ghost gun, prosecutors say
According to prosecutors, Boston Police officers attempted to stop Carbuccia when he pulled out a gun and began shooting, striking a Boston police cruiser before fleeing the scene.
Investigators said Carbuccia ran through backyards and hopped fences before he was taken into custody. Officers did not fire their weapons during the encounter.
Prosecutors said investigators later recovered the firearm along the path where Carbuccia had been running.
“It was determined that the firearm was a ghost gun, and it did not possess a serial number,” Suffolk County prosecutor Jacqueline Martinelli said in court.
Union says “everyone should be outraged”
Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, said the shooting is part of what he believes is a troubling trend of violence this summer and renewed his call for more officers on Boston streets.
“Everybody should be outraged. Bullets flying in the city’s streets at uniformed police officers. How can we possibly convince the general public that they’re safe to walk around their own neighborhoods?” Calderone said.
“We have teenagers pulling firearms and stealing mopeds from others in broad daylight. We have shots being fired at police officers in uniform, officers being attacked, people being shot daily that we can’t solve the crimes,” he added.
No one was injured in the shooting, but Calderone said the outcome could have been much worse.
“Thank goodness, neither officer or a pedestrian, an innocent child or somebody in the middle of the evening did not get killed last night. Just as thankful, at least they caught him. They recovered the weapon,” he said.
After the arraignment, Carbuccia’s attorney declined to discuss the case in detail but indicated mental health issues could become part of the proceedings.
“Ultimately as you guys know this is a process that has to play out and he’s presumed innocent and there’s going to be a number of things that are going to come out in respect to mental health and potentially the investigation, I don’t really have much more to say beyond that,” attorney Bob White told reporters.
According to prosecutors, Carbuccia had two open assault cases and an active warrant at the time of his arrest.
He’s being held in jail without bail and is scheduled to return to court later this month for a dangerousness hearing.
The Boston Red Sox will return to action on Friday to kick off the second half of the 2026 Major League Baseball season with a doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The last few weeks have been incredible for Boston and have really gotten the organization right back into the thick of the playoff race. Beforehand, the Red Sox looked like one of the worst teams in baseball. Now, Boston is 46-48 and has won 14 of its last 16 games. It’s why you play the games. The MLB season is long and full of ups and downs. Sure, the first few months of the season were full of many down moments for the Red Sox, but they flipped a switch, got hot, and now are right back in the mix.
Now, there are just over two weeks to go until the 2026 trade deadline and Boston should be looking to add. But who should the Red Sox be targeting? Here are four intriguing options for Craig Breslow and the Red Sox’s front office to target.
Gleyber Torres — Detroit Tigers
The former longtime New York Yankee is a member of the Detroit Tigers and was slashing .280/.395/.395 with a .790 OPS, four homers and 18 RBIs before the All-Star break. Torres is on the Injured List, but has already begun a rehab assignment. Torres has the type of right-handed pop Boston’s lineup needs. Plus, he’s just 29 years old.
Luis Arráez — San Francisco Giants
Luis Arráez isn’t a right-handed bat and doesn’t have much power, but this is a guy with three batting titles under his belt and has a shot at another one. He’s batting .330 right now and would go a long way for Boston by getting on base towards the top of the lineup.
James Wood — Washington Nationals
This would be a pipe dream type of move. Wood is under team control for four more seasons and is just 23 years old, and yet he’s already a two-time All-Star. He blasted 31 homers last year and already has 28 this season in 97 games played. If the Red Sox could get a bat like his, they’d be all set. But it would cost quite a bit to pry him from Washington.
Isaac Paredes — Houston Astros
There are few players who were connected to Boston more this past offseason than Isaac Paredes. The Astros don’t look like a team that is going to sell, but Paredes is still worth a call. Houston traded Lance McCullers Jr. to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday in a salary dump.
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A man was flown to a Boston hospital after being hit by a vehicle Wednesday evening in Norwood, Massachusetts, and the driver has been arrested.
Norwood police responded shortly after 7:30 p.m. to the intersection of Washington Street and St. John Avenue.
The victim was found seriously injured. Fire crews treated him at the scene before he was taken by ambulance to a landing zone to be airlifted by medical helicopter.
Police said the woman driving the vehicle was taken into custody. She is facing charges including operating under the influence of liquor.
The crash is under investigation.
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