Fire Guts Frat House On Illinois State Campus
NORMAL, Ill. (CBS) -- A fire Wednesday morning gutted a fraternity house near the Illinois State University campus in downstate Normal.
Everyone escaped safely from the two-story Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house. The house was home to 30 men, according to Champaign CBS affiliate WCIA-TV.
Firefighters responded to multiple calls around midnight Tuesday night about the fire, and the house was fully engulfed in flames by the time crews arrived, WCIA reported.
ISU spokesman Jay Groves said the fraternity house did not have any sprinklers, but had been scheduled to get them. The state has mandated sprinklers in all student housing, but the law does not take effect until 2013.
Groves says the students who lived in the house will be given class supplies, textbooks and notes.
There is no word on where those students will live for the rest of the semester. They were given a place to stay overnight, some with friends and alumni and others in the dorms.
Meanwhile, the cause of the fire remains under investigation. Authorities believe a fan that was sparking upstairs is responsible, WCIA reported.
The fraternity conducted fire drills and its president said these procedures might have prevented an even more serious tragedy, WCIA reported.
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