The tenants, three Duke University students, had moved into the apartment, one of three in the old Trinity Park home, on Wednesday.

"It was quite an unhappy morning," said Colin McKnight, 21, a rising senior.

McKnight, wearing one black Chuck Taylor and one New Balance running shoe in the front yard, said he woke up to the fire outside his bedroom porch around 5:20 a.m. The mismatched shoes were the only ones he could find, he said.

McKnight said he woke up his other roommates and tried to fight the fire with an extinguisher. But the fire grew out of control, rose to the attic, and they fled, he said.

Richard Bouchard and Brent Kintzing, also seniors, were among the four friends sleeping in the house. Bouchard said he noticed the apartment’s smoke alarm was not connected to the wall Wednesday while they were moving in. The students also said that the house was full of items left from the previous tenants, including about 15 mattresses in the attic.

A pile of charred and wet chairs, mattresses and other furniture sat on the house’s front lawn. Fire officials hadn’t estimated the cost of the damage Thursday. Beyond the charred roof, attic and porch, smoke and water also damaged several rooms on the second and first floor.

Bouchard said he thought about grabbing some of his own belongings before fleeing the house.

"[But] as long as everyone is safe ... it would have really, really sucked if anyone got hurt," he said. "It was a rude awakening." Guy Solie, who manages several homes around in Durham and around Duke’s campus, including 704 N. Buchanan Blvd., echoed Bouchard. "When I heard about the fire my stomach turned over," he said. "It’s one of those nightmares. Thank God no one got hurt."

Solie said one of his assistants checked the home a week ago and didn’t notice the detached smoke alarm or mattresses. He said his policy was to clear out everything in a rental property before new tenants move in, but the students had asked to move in before it could get cleaned.

"I’m sure we’d be in there tomorrow or next week and catch something like [the smoke alarm and mattresses]," he said. "If the tenants called and said the smoke alarm was broken, we’d fix it. Maybe it happened during the move out?"

Battalion Chief Barry Yeargin of Station No. 2 said he didn’t know anything about the smoke alarm. He said the grill was placed too close to the porch wall. "[The students] were lucky, I’ll say that much," Yeargin said. "You always get flashbacks of Chapel Hill -- that’s the nightmare," he said, referring to a 1996 fire at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house off UNC’s campus that killed five people.