ITHACA, N.Y. - An overnight kitchen fire that began early Friday in an apartment building in a neighborhood largely occupied by university students left a Cornell student dead, a deputy fire chief said.

Thirteen Cornell students lived in the home's eight apartments, but only six or seven were in the building when the fire broke out in a common kitchen on the first floor of the four-story structure, Deputy Ithaca Fire Chief C. Thomas Parsons said.

The victim's name would likely be released later Friday, Parsons said. Earlier reports said one student was missing, but all the students in the house were accounted for, the deputy chief said.

An investigation concluded the fire was accidental, the result of unintended cooking. The victim's apartment was close to the kitchen.

Investigators were trying to determine if the home's fire alarm system was working. The blaze was under control in about three hours, Parsons said.

About 20,000 students are enrolled in the Ivy League university. The school is surrounded by steep, rocky gorges in upstate New York's Finger Lakes region.

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