Officials are looking into whether a student rental house where a fire started this weekend was in compliance with the fire code.

Alpha Fire Company was dispatched at 10:21 p.m. Saturday to 165 E. Cherry Lane, Chief Stanley Clouser said.

He said the fire took about 20 minutes to control and the investigation was concluded by 2 a.m.

Clouser said most of the house received smoke damage, but major damage was confined to one bedroom.

"Basically everything in the room was burnt," he said.

The three student residents had left the house around 9:30 p.m. and were not home when the fire occurred, Clouser said.

He said that they were able to stay with friends after the fire.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation yesterday, Clouser added.

Centre County Fire Marshall Walter Wise said there were no updates on the investigation.

Clouser said he believed the code violation investigation centered around the number and condition of the smoke detectors, but he knew the house had at least one working smoke detector.

Scott Owens, the house's owner, said that he had spoken with Centre County Senior Fire and Housing Inspector Tim Knisely Monday morning.

However, Owens said that he did not believe that there were any code compliance issues with the rental house.

Knisely could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Neither Wise nor Owens said they had heard from him yesterday.