A damaging fire broke out Friday at approximately 6 a.m. in a secret room of the UW-Madison fraternity Sigma Phi, 106 N. Prospect.
When the Madison fire department responded to an alarm from within the fraternity house, they were unable to find the source of the fire, according to John Frank, public relations officer for the Madison fire department.
\After some amount of extensive time the fraternity members finally ... [said] that there was a hidden room in their basement,"" he said. ""We had to break down the door, which actually looked like a wall.""
Frank said the secret room, which is located under the back yard, had been undisclosed to the fire department when the fire marshal inspected the house and is in violation of fire codes.
""It really was a very unsafe room in that it had no exits to the outside,"" he said. ""If some fire would have happened in there and people were down there they would have been trapped.""
The fraternity uses the secret room for chapter meetings and used candles in a meeting the night before the fire, according to Frank.
Though the fire did not lead to injuries, it caused approximately $15,000 worth of smoke, fire and water damage to the fraternity house. Many of the secret room's contents, including church-style pews, a podium, sofa chairs and fraternity memorabilia, were destroyed. The rest of the house only suffered slight smoke damage.
Although the fire department has not decided whether to press charges for obstructing fire codes, Frank said he was disappointed in the fraternity members.
""They did not tell us about the room even though they knew that that's where the fire source probably was,"" he said.
Rob Johnson, president of Sigma Phi, could not be reached for comment.
While Frank said other fraternities and sororities may have similar covert areas, Ryan Mitchell, Press Relations Chair for Sigma Epsilon and UW-Madison sophomore, said his fraternity house has none. Mitchell added he thinks other houses may have less obvious rooms, but such spaces are disclosed to the fire department.
Dan Bergin, President of the UW-Madison's Interfraternity Council and UW-Madison senior, said most Greek houses hold chapter meetings in large, open areas.
""As far as secret rooms go, they're not prevalent,"" he said.
