-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2000 9:14 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Man Found Bound in Burned Frat House


Man Found Bound in Burned Frat House

.c The Associated Press

 PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) - Firefighters rescued a man who was bound with duct
tape and barricaded inside a fraternity guest room during a blaze early
Saturday that caused extensive damage.

No one was injured in the fire at the Sigma Nu fraternity house at
Washington State University, but 20 students had to be evacuated from the
building, said Fire Department spokesman Glenn Johnson.

The fire was tentatively attributed to a candle left burning on the
windowsill in a resident's room, said fire Capt. Richard Dragoo.

Firefighters checking the house to make sure everyone had been evacuated
found one man well away from the fire but with his wrists and ankles bound
with duct tape and the door barricaded with furniture.

The college is investigating ``the highly inappropriate behavior of taping
the body and feet of a fraternity member and leaving him in a guest room in
the house,'' the school's interim provost, Rom Markin, said in a news
release.

Johnson said the wing where the fire broke out was burned to the point it
was uninhabitable. He said the wing was built in 1968, before city fire
codes required sprinklers, and the building does not have a sprinkler
system.

Markin's statement said the university was ``launching an immediate
investigation into all aspects of fraternity-house fire safety.''

The fraternity's vice president, Josh Knowles, did not immediately return a
phone call for comment Saturday.

AP-NY-02-19-00 2113EST

 Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.  The information  contained in the AP
news report may not be published,  broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without  prior written authority of The Associated Press.



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