Neighbors, firefighters try to save RIT students

Two RIT students died in a city home around 2:30 Friday morning. Officials say Seth Policzer of Florida and Syed Ali Turab from New Jersey among six RIT students at the house when the fire started. Neighbors who woke up when the fire started say the scene was hectic.

"When we first came out, the house in flames," said Craig Delgiorno, a neighbor. "People were just screaming. It was chaos."

Delgiorno and his roommate came running out of their house when they heard screaming and banging on their door. They found flames shooting from the front of their neighbor's house.

"We were trying to break the windows because guys were jumping off the roof and coming out the back door," he said.

A woman and two men made it out before fire crews got there just five minutes later. Firefighters then tried to get the other three men out.

"When I came outside, I saw flames coming from out the window," said Hector Perez, a neighbor. "I saw the fireman trying to carry one guy out from a second-story window."

"We had people coming out of the building just collapsing," Delgiorno said. "I mean, they did everything they could for those guys."

Michael Dicocco, a senior at RIT, was then taken out by firefighters then to the hospital. Policzer and Turab, both 21 years old, didn't survive.

"Due to the fire conditions," said Fire Chief John Caufield, "it was not possible to save the two people who died."

And neighbors say it's a loss to the RIT and Rochester community.

"They were just awesome guys," Delgiorno said. "It was hard to see that (this morning)."