BOULDER, Colo.—Someone tossed a firebomb into a fraternity house about a block from the University of Colorado campus Friday, setting off a brawl in a nearby alley that sent one man to the hospital, police said.
The early morning firebomb caused no injuries or significant damage, and residents had put the fire out by the time firefighters arrived, police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said.
Huntley said the incident was probably not a hate crime, but more likely stemmed from a feud between the fraternity and residents of a nearby apartment or with another fraternity.
No arrests had been made.
A jug of charcoal starter fluid with a burning firecracker attached was thrown into the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house through an open door at about 2:15 a.m., Huntley said. Someone insided pushed it back outside with a wet mop.
“We’re very, very fortunate that nobody was hurt,” she said.
When officers arrived, they found about 30 young men brawling in the alley, Huntley said. Andrew Hansen, 20, a member of the fraternity, was hospitalized for broken facial bones and a deep cut.
Huntley said Hansen did not know who hit him.
The fraternity and some residents of a building across the alley have “a history of some problems,” including vandalism to a fence at the fraternity house, Huntley said.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon members also told investigators of tensions between them and another fraternity.
Huntley said police have not identified any suspects.
Jess Havill, vice president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter, declined to discuss the incident.
Marc Stine, a spokesman for the Interfraternity Council, which represents more than a dozen fraternities at CU, said there is no solid evidence another fraternity was involved in the attack.
Stine said private security guards have been hired to stand watch at the house for the next several days.
University spokesman Bronson Hilliard called the attack a “pretty reckless, stupid, irresponsible thing for somebody to do.”
He said if any university students are found to be involved in the firebombing or the fight, they could be expelled.
