Brewer Mansion

Fire Heavily Damages Fraternity House
By Matt Stafford and Christian Nolan, Staff Reporters

Two fires, one of which left a fraternity house in ruins, kept area firefighters busy overnight.
The first blaze happened close to 1 a.m. at the Pi Kappa Phi frat house on 50 Tompkins St. Details were sketchy this morning as fire officials said that no cause was known and the investigation is continuing. Members of the Cortland County Fire Investigation Team arrived to the frat house about mid-morning today. If they rule the cause to be suspicious, then city police investigators will join the probe.
"When I got here, I saw fire on the back end of the roof," Cortland Fire Chief Dennis Baron said at the scene as fire [sic].
Baron said only one resident was home at the time, with the rest said to be downtown at the bars. He added that it was rumored the single resident home ran downtown to find his frat brothers before he called the fire department.
The roof suffered the most visible structural damage, but as the sun rose it was apparent the interior had suffered heavy smoke damage. The heaviest fire damage seemed to be in the attic and on the third floor. Water poured out onto the front steps, making it appear like they were in a downpour even though it was a cloudless morning. In the background, the relatively new fire alarm inside the frat house continued to sound off.
Sherman noted that at one point firefighters were pumping 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of water per minute into the structure.
The fire appeared mostly out by dawn, though firefighters were spraying water on an apparent "hot spot" in a back alcove. Its interior was charred to black.
Sherman said the heaviest portion of the fire when the firefighters arrived was in the rear of the building on the second and third floors.
According to Sgt. Fred Whitsett of the City Police Department, Pi Kappa Phi had just moved into the frat house at 50 Tompkins St. two weeks ago. Delta Kappa Beta had previously lived there.
This is not the first time this house has burned. A fire in 1989 that started in a first-floor pantry, when Delta Kappa Beta resided there, burned out the third floor and the roof, just as this latest blaze did. That fire spread through a dumbwaiter. Three firefighters were injured fighting it. The cause was ruled accidental.
At that fire, house residents interfered with the firefighters. "Their state of inebriation and their conduct was most distractful in the early going," Baron saidat the time. This time, however, he said the residents were nowhere to be found. "We haven't seen them," he said.
Another fireman said this morning that a few of the five or six residents of the house who are currently in town arrived to the fire at around 5 a.m. Fire officials siad that about a dozen or so fraternity members were expected to live in the house when the fall semester begins later this month. This will not be the case now.
Tompkins Street was closed this morning between Prospect Terrace and Owego Street as more than a dozen firemen were still at the scene throughout the morning. At one point during the overnight hours, Main Street and parts of Owego Street were closed because of the fires.
Cortlandville and Homer fire departments assisted at the 50 Tompkins St. fire."