Incendiary fire destroys fraternity house

NFPA Journal, Sep/Oct 2006 by Tremblay, Kenneth

KENTUCKY-Smoke detectors activated during an early-morning fire in a college fraternity house, allowing all the occupants to escape before firefighters arrived.

The three-story, wood-frame house, which was 80 feet (24 meters) long and 32 feet (10 meters) wide, had a brick exterior and an asphalt-shingled roof. The walls in the basement stairwell were covered with a combustible finish. There were no sprinklers.

The fire alarms sounded at 4:06 a.m., waking the occupants, who evacuated the building. When responding firefighters arrived, the occupants told them that everyone had gotten safely out of the building, which was fully involved in flames by that time. The most intense fire at the right side of the house and over a carport.

Investigators determined that someone intentionally used an open-flame to ignite combustible materials at the bottom of the basement stairs. The combustible wall covering in the stairway, combined with the stairs, created a chimney effect that spread the fire to the upper levels. The house, valued at $500,000, and its contents, valued at $200,000, were destroyed.