Someone intentionally lit a stack of newspapers on fire in a Pinchot Hall elevator early yesterday morning, Penn State University Police said.

"Obviously it's arson ... you will go to jail for that," Residence Life Area Coordinator Ryan Steinberg told residents of Pinchot Hall at a meeting last night. "We want to find out who did it."

The fire was extinguished by the time firefighters arrived on the scene at about 5 a.m. The flames scorched an area about 3 feet by 3 feet in the left-hand corner of the elevator car and caused smoke to billow onto floors of the East Halls dorm, which was evacuated.

Smoke alarms were triggered on the first, seventh and 10th floors as the elevator stopped on each floor and opened its doors, Steinberg said.

Steinberg told students that university police officer Matthew Shupenko, who was also present at the meeting last night, has been knocking on doors in the dorm to speak to residents and that he will continue to do so as part of an ongoing investigation.

"It's not a joke. It's not a prank. It was a serious crime," Shupenko said, adding that arson carries a prison sentence of seven years.

Yesterday morning, university police officer Clifford Lutz declined to comment whether university police had suspects in the fire. Shupenko also said he could not release any information.

There are about 320 residents in the mostly freshman, all-male dorm, many of whom waited outside and in neighboring Fisher Hall for about half an hour yesterday morning.

What seemed like a run-of-the-mill false alarm turned serious when fire trucks pulled up, Pinchot resident Andy Pool (freshman-psychology) said.

Both Bellefonte and Philipsburg fire departments were summoned to the scene because Alpha Fire Co. was already fighting a house fire on West College Avenue, Lutz said.

"There was a real fire downtown," Shupenko said, telling students that the prank pulled them away "when we could be better used elsewhere."

After students were allowed back in the dorm, the elevators were disabled -- forcing some to walk up 10 stories to the top floor in the early morning hours.

"You can imagine, a lot of kids were pissed off waiting outside," Pool said.

Steinberg said that the "superficially damaged" elevator car will be replaced in the future and that he is now also considering taking the newspaper racks out of the dorm.

Steinberg said the newspapers have been littered throughout the dorm every weekend of the semester, and the latest incident caps off the problems with residents abusing the privilege.

"I'm not going to keep that out there as kindling for them," he said.