An early morning fire Thursday is the latest in a string of setbacks for residents of the former Phi Delta Theta fraternity, 240 N. Burrowes Road.

Alpha Fire Co. responded to the accidental electrical fire at about 2:45 a.m. Thursday, stringing hoses up to the penthouse to extinguish what the sprinkler system could not reach, said Steve Bair, fire director for the Centre Region Council of Governments.

None of the 24 residents of the century-old building were injured, but they could go weeks without returning home, Bair said. Kevin Haslam, former Phi Delta Theta chapter president and a resident of the house, said the university has offered the residents housing, but they have fellow fraternity members to stay with.

"This is a brotherhood," he said. "Everyone's got a brother to stay with."

Firefighters took an axe to a wall in the penthouse to put out a fire that was burning there, Bair said, leaving the wall charred with insulation hanging out. Smoke and fire damage was kept to that part of the building, but water damage affected the floors below, Bair said. The fire was caused by a lighting fixture connected by a series of electrical cords, he said.

Haslam said, if anything, the fire will "bring our brotherhood closer."

"We've been fighting the odds for eight, nine years now -- this is nothing," Haslam said.

Penn State's Phi Delta Theta Chapter was suspended in 2007 after violating a national organization's dry-house policy. Former members are calling themselves the Phi Society, which is not recognized by the university. Penn State filed a lawsuit in November in an attempt to take ownership of the house.

More recently, the unsanctioned fraternity was dealt a blow in its lawsuit with Penn State when the State College Zoning Hearing Board unanimously voted Tuesday that the building is no longer a fraternity house, but instead was deemed a rooming house.

The property's 1905 deed gives Penn State the option to purchase the house if it is no longer being used as a fraternity house or chapter house by the Pennsylvania Theta Chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

Haslam said he is thankful no one was living in the penthouse at the time of the fire. At about 2:40 a.m. the fire alarm went off, shut off and came back on again, he said.

When residents became aware of the blaze, people started banging on doors, he said. A member of the Kappa Alpha Order -- a houseless fraternity that has members living at 240 N. Burrowes Road -- and a boarder then tried to put it out, Haslam said.

"It just kept coming back and that's when we decided that we had to evacuate as soon as possible," he said.

Bob Biggs, executive vice president for Phi Delta Theta's national chapter, said no assistance will be provided to the residents because "we no longer have a chapter there at Penn State."

Biggs said he also had not been contacted about the fire.

Sandy Deveney, a member of the unsanctioned fraternity's board of directors, said the house is fully insured.

"Everything is taken care of," he said.

People were on site Thursday working to clean up the damage from the fire, he said.

Tim Knisley, senior fire inspector for Centre Region Code Administration, said the structure had minor damage from the fire and the sprinklers kept the blaze in check until Alpha Fire Co. could arrive.

Very little water was used to douse the flames, Knisley said, and a 4-by-8 foot area was burned.

Water damage was also limited, he said. If the building did not have the sprinkler system required of fraternities, firefighters probably would have used 10 times the amount of water, Knisley said.

"The sprinkler went off before anyone even knew there was a fire," he said.