Thursday April 21, 2016, around 2:30 p.m., three cars caught fire on the Boca Raton campus, just behind the Education Building on the north side of campus.

Christopher Budden, a sophomore pre-business major, was parked in his blue BMW 328 waiting for class when the car caught on fire. He escaped before the fire spread to two others parked next to it in Lot 7 in front of the Education Science building.

“I smelled something, so I got out and popped the hood … I got back in turned the A.C. on and smoke came out of the vents,” Budden said. “That’s when fire started leaking out from the floor board.”

Budden was on the phone with his Father sitting in the car explaining the smell to him in the car when the fire had started.

“He was telling me the car started smoking and wanted to know if it was steaming, when he said Dad it’s on fire,”  Russel Budden, Christopher’s father, said.

As of publication time, it was unclear what started the fire.

Shortly after, students from the Education Science building could hear the sirens of the Boca Raton Fire Rescue, and see the smoke and flames engulfing the car from their classroom windows.

“I saw fire, it started from the blue BMW it looked like it spread from the cabin,” Zack Jannotta sophomore international business major said.

“We heard the sirens and looked out and saw the car on fire,” Victoria James a junior hospitality management major said. “We didn’t see anyone around, just cops here and it caught on fire.”

The fire that started in the BMW spread to two vehicles on both side, on the right a black Nissan and the left a silver Honda.

“The car started smoking and before anyone knew it both cars got hit,” said Brian Walker a freshman social science education and owner of one of the cars that caught on fire.

No one in the fire was injured.

Check back in with upressonline.com for more details to come.  

Joe Pye is a staff writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @Jpeg3189.