Four MSU students lost their home, at least temporarily, on Monday after a fire broke out in the third-floor crawl space of their Grove Street rental house.

All the tenants left the house safely, although three were sleeping as the fire filled the top floor and broke through the roof. East Lansing firefighters extinguished the blaze shortly after noon.

The cause of the fire was a short circuit in the house's electrical wiring, East Lansing Fire Marshal Bob Pratt said, adding that tenants had noticed spotty electrical service for a few days.

The smoke detectors and fire alarms in the house at 442 Grove St. did not alert the tenants of the fire, because there were no smoke detectors in the attic.

Smoke detectors in attics are not required in the city's housing code as long as people don't live there, Pratt said.

Tenants said they'd never been in the crawl space.

Fire investigators said the fire could have started more than an hour before a passerby saw smoke - about 11 a.m. - and called the fire department.

Firefighters helped the tenants, whose families all live locally, move salvaged televisions, computers and clothes out of the house Monday afternoon. They also retrieved as many textbooks as they could - some of the roommates have midterm exams today.

The roof along the backside of the brown house was severely charred, and firefighters said the attic was structurally unsound and could collapse.

"I just lost everything for no reason," said tenant Ryan Turner, a psychology and criminal justice senior whose bedroom is on the second floor below the crawl space and sustained heavy damage. Turner was at class during the fire.

"I'm just mad I wasn't here because I would have been dragging stuff out until they physically stopped me," he said.

It was unclear Monday if the tenants would be able to move back into the house, but fire investigators and the landlord said it was unlikely.

Sam Usman, owner of the house for about 20 years, said he has yet to calculate damages with his insurance company. Usman's son, Sam Jr., is the fifth tenant of the house, but is studying abroad in Australia this semester.

"I am upset the smoke alarm system recommended by the city didn't go off because I spent quite a bit of money on it, and it didn't go off," Usman said.

The house passed a city inspection in November.

When he left for class just after 10 a.m., Turner said he thought he smelled something burning but looked around and saw no smoke or flames.

Turner's roommate, human biology senior Seth Sohn, said he woke up at about 11 a.m. when a maintenance worker across the street began pounding on their door.

The other roommates, MSU students Brian Donovan and Shervin Ravan, also were sleeping when the fire broke out.

"We didn't even realize the house was on fire," Sohn said.

When Turner returned from class about an hour later, he saw two East Lansing fire trucks in front of his house.

"As I got closer to the house, I realized how much closer it was to where we live at; then I realized it was our place," Turner said.

The roommates talked with friends and parents outside the charred house early Monday afternoon. They ordered lunch and discussed how they did not have renter's insurance.

"The house is totaled," Sohn said.