Flames Again Char U Fraternity House

A University fraternity house which was undergoing major repairs from a $200,000 fire last December caught fire again yesterday and damage this time was unofficially estimated at more than $50,000. (Picture on Page 1) Fire Chief Arthur L. Stauch said the latest blaze broke out about 6 p.m. in a storage room in the basement of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house at 1437 Washtenaw Ave. Battalion Chief Russell Taylor led a forcé of 20 men manning five pieces of equipment to the blaze. I Before firemen left the scène about I 8:15 p.m., they had shot more than : ? r w 000 gallons of water into the burning building. When firefighters arrived, ñames were leaping out of windows on the first and second floors of the three-story building and stifling clouds of white smoke were billowing upward from the raging fire. Chief Stauch and Assistant Chief Fred Schmid directed the erection of a "water tower" from one truck and a half-dozen fire hoses into the building. Smoke from the fire drifted down nearby S. University Ave. and filled side streets around the área. Ann Arbor pólice detoured traffie around the fire scène after firefighters laid hoses arrnss several streets. "It was a dirty fire, a difficult one to I reach," Chief Stauch said later. "But the I men did an excellent job. They had it I under control in less than 45 minutes." Chief Stauch said the cause of the I blaze is as yet undetermined. The chief assigned Fire Inspector I lan Lee to investígate the fire even I fore the blaze was extinguished. Lee also I investigated the fire at the house last I December and at that time reported the I blaze was caused by a lighted candle in I a room. The inspector said a preliminary check I showed that after yesterday's fire I ed in the basement storage room it shot I upward around partitions and swept through the floor of a main lobby or I ing area near the front door of the I sprawling, brick dormitory. "Then with an open stairway nearby, I the fire went straight up to the second I floor," Inspector Lee said. "The stairs I acted just like a chimney" Chief Stauch and Assistant C h i e f I Schmid said their men managed to stop I the flames before they reached the third I floor but there was major heat and I smoke damage to that area. The base-I ment, which had been partitioned off for I eating facilities and other rooms, along I with the first floor and the second floor I stairway received most of the fire 1 age, the fire officials said. No one has lived in the fraternity I house since the first fire last Dec. 13 in I which the roof and the third story of the I dwelling were destroyed. The chief said some construction I materials and tools were probably lost in I the blaze if they were stored in the j ment. He said workmen left the building j about an hour before the fire broke out. The fire five months ago was started I when an occupant of the house left a I Christmas candle burning on a desk overnight. The candle burned down through the night and then ignited class papers on the desk, a Fire Department investigation showed later. The flames then caught holiday greens and moments later a Christmas tree in the room was ablaze. The fire started in a second floor room and swept upward through the third floor and the roof. Thirty U-M students living in the j house at the time fled to safety.