Members of Kappa Alpha Order fraternity were allowed back into their house yesterday afternoon after a fire led to the evacuation of about 18 brothers at 3:45 a.m.
Tim Knisely, a Centre Region Code Administration fire inspector, surveyed the premises at 234 E. Beaver Ave. yesterday and deemed it safe for occupation.
Kappa Alpha Order president Shahbaz Sadaruddin (senior-neuroscience) said a futon sitting against a heater in the second-floor room of Rich Kaz (junior-supply chain information systems) caught on fire and burnt for about 10 minutes early yesterday morning, triggering an internal alarm.
There were no serious injuries reported, according to police reports.
Brian Shapiro (junior-industrial engineering) said Kaz and Nick Schiliro (sophomore-business administration) were transported to Mount Nittany Medical Center to be treated for smoke inhalation.
"Sometimes random people who are in the house pull the fire alarms for fun," Shapiro said. "Most people will get out of bed and check, but it's usually nothing."
Sadaruddin said the brothers were evacuated onto Highland Avenue and found shelter in various apartments downtown. The Penn State Office of Student Affairs was on the scene, assisting the displaced students.
"We have had false alarms before, but we had brothers running around in their underwear saying, 'this one is for real'," said Kevin Jennings (junior-industrial engineering), a fraternity member who was in the house at the time of the fire.
Shapiro said the only visible damage was from smoke, and the high-pressure hoses used to put out the flames broke a window.
"A lot of people were just in boxers and T-shirts," RJ DiBella (senior-advertising) said. "The police came and were kicking down doors and stuff. It was a pretty serious thing, but they put it out quickly."
DiBella said the fraternity's alarm system goes off "randomly" sometimes, so the brothers initially thought the incident was a false alarm.
A sign on the fraternity's front door yesterday from the Centre Region Code Administration read: "This structure is unsafe and its use or occupancy has been prohibited by the building official."
The charred futon mattress was visible outside of the house after being removed from the building. A TV remote appeared to be burned into the mattress.
Shapiro said this is the first real fire he has experienced in his three years of living in the house.
Built in 1923, the house, which is one of the oldest and largest fraternity houses at Penn State, was destroyed by a fire in 1929, which collapsed most of the structure, according to the Kappa Alpha Order Web site.
