WSU student hospitalized after fall from fraternity fire escape

A Washington State University student was taken to the hospital in critical condition after falling from the third-story fire escape of a fraternity house Saturday night. Pullman police were called to the Sigma Phi Epsilon house at 610 NE Colorado St. just after 10 p.m. and found a 20-year-old man with obvious head injuries who had fallen to the ground, police spokesman Cmdr. Chris Tennant said. No one saw the student fall, Tennant said, but he was found with vomit on his body and may have fallen while trying to vomit off the fire escape. He was “highly intoxicated” at the time of the fall, Tennant said. The student was found by members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, fraternity president Ryan Pitzer said. He was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital in critical condition, then transported to a hospital in Spokane on Saturday. Tennant did not have an update on his condition Monday. Police are not releasing the student’s name because there is no criminal investigation, but said he was from Poulsbo, Washington. Pitzer said in a statement the Sigma Phi Epsilon house is alcohol-free and was not holding a social event Saturday night. The incident is the second fall from a WSU Greek house this school year. In August, a 19-year-old woman was injured when she fell while trying to vomit out of a second-story window in the Delta Gamma sorority house. Those incidents appear to be the first serious falls at a WSU Greek house since September 2013, when a 21-year-old man, reportedly drunk on wine, fell down a flight of stairs inside the Delta Chi fraternity house. In August of that year, a 19-year-old woman fell through a fire escape at Phi Kappa Tau. In 2012, five WSU or University of Idaho students were injured in falls from buildings between September and November; three of the five were at fraternity houses, and four of the five involved alcohol. Tennant said the police department is concerned about students hurting themselves while drunk and works to educate students about the dangers of excessive drinking. “I don’t honestly know, short of putting people in cages, how to prevent some of these. It is frustrating,” he said.