Fire guts frat
apartment
After blaze,
two members left roomless; one now out of hospital
| 
Joseph
Hollak / The Collegian
A firefighter surveys the yard of a fraternity apartment, gutted
of its contents after a fire broke out Saturday morning. |
By Joseph Hollak
and Jenna Nielsen
The Collegian
A fire destroyed a two-bedroom
apartment of the Delta Upsilon fraternity house early Saturday morning,
causing nearly $45,000 in structural damage, investigators said.
The fire broke out at approximately 7:30 a.m. at 4311 E. Sierra Madre
at Shaw and Cedar avenues, investigators.
Five engines, two trucks and more 20 firefighters, including a battalion
chief and an investigator, responded to the fire.
The lead investigator on the scene, Daniel Dodson, said the fire was caused
by candles that were left burning on a shelving unit in a closet. Dodson
said there was no power to the building before the fire.
“There were other candles lit, but the ones in the closet were the
ones that started the fire,” Dodson said.
Neighbor Gary Couch was painting next door when he noticed the smoke from
the fire and called 911.
“I was rushing with adrenaline,” Couch said. He started yelling
for everyone to get out and grabbed a garden hose to help put out the
fire.
| 
Joseph
Hollak / The Collegian
A framed and water-damaged Delta Upsilon newsletter lies outside
the apartment where it once hung. |
“I just grabbed the hose
and started spraying,” he said. “All I was thinking is ‘if
this place burns down, where are these guys going to live?’”
Couch said he tried to keep the fire from spreading to the roof and other
apartments.
“If I didn’t start spraying the roof, the fire department
said the whole second story might have caught on fire,” Couch said.
“I was just trying to keep the fire down because these guys would
do it for me if my place was on fire.”
The apartment was home to two of the fraternity’s members, Chris
St. George and Victor Rubio. Both declined to comment.
Delta Upsilon’s vice president for membership education, Kirk Brassfield,
who lives in the complex, said everyone was asleep but Rubio, who was
in another room and returned to his bedroom to find it on fire.
Rubio then woke up St. George, who started yelling, trying to wake up
other occupants of the complex, Brassfield said.
“Chris saved the house,” Brassfield said. “He kept the
fire from spreading.” Brassfield said St. George was using fire
extinguishers to diffuse the fire until the fire department showed up.
“We knew the smoke was getting to him,” Brassfield said. “He
was trying to put out the fire with extinguishers while [Couch] was spraying
the roof with water.”
Investigators found the apartment did not have a smoke detector, but neighboring
apartments did.
St. George was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, but was released
Saturday afternoon, Dodson said. Investigators said there were no other
injuries.
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