Ohio State University has placed its Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter on interim suspension after a video spread across social media showing two people on fire at an off-campus gathering in Columbus. The university announced the suspension on Sunday, November 8, saying both people in the footage are receiving medical care and that it had referred the case to law enforcement for investigation.

Source: WCMH (NBC4 Columbus) via WCIA

The video, which went viral over the weekend, shows one person on the ground with his sweatpants in flames. A third person tries and fails to put the fire out with an extinguisher. The burning man then lunges at a second person, whose sweatpants immediately catch fire as well. Both fall to the ground, roll around and tear their burning clothes off, while dozens of onlookers in Ohio State sports apparel stand around them with phones in hand, some laughing, as the two can be heard yelling. Several onlookers eventually step in and help smother the flames on one of them.

Columbus police say the incident appears to have happened on Saturday, November 7, in the 1900 block of Indianola Avenue, a street lined with fraternity and sorority houses a short walk from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter house. In a striking detail, police received no calls about the incident that day at all: officers were alerted only on Sunday, as the video began circulating widely online and the university learned of it.

Source: QNC News

“Extremely concerning”: the university suspends the chapter

“The university is aware of this extremely concerning incident, and the individuals in question are receiving needed medical care,” university spokesperson Ben Johnson said in a statement issued late Sunday night. “Ohio State has placed the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on interim suspension pending a full investigation, and the university has made referrals to law enforcement.” The Lantern, Ohio State's student newspaper, confirmed the suspension with university spokesperson Chris Booker, who repeated the statement and added that the university “is committed to a safe and healthy environment and expects students and student organizations to uphold that commitment and the university’s values.”

Booker told The Lantern there had been no medical update on the two people affected as of Monday afternoon. The chapter — formally the Ohio Theta chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, whose house stands on Indianola Avenue — is now listed as an inactive student organization on an Ohio State website, and the chapter has since made its Instagram account private.

Police and arson investigators take over the case

Columbus police are working with the university and with the Columbus Division of Fire's arson unit to determine whether any crimes were committed. The central question is how the clothing caught fire: the footage captures the moments after the flames began, not how they started, and it does not by itself show whether an accelerant, a party stunt or an accident was involved. Police have not said whether the incident involved hazing. As of Monday, no arrests or charges had been announced, and neither police nor the university had released the names of the two people who were burned or any detail about the severity of their injuries.

National fraternity promises accountability

Sigma Alpha Epsilon's national headquarters responded on Monday, November 9. “Sigma Alpha Epsilon is aware of a concerning video involving an incident at The Ohio State University,” chief executive Steve Mitchell said in an email statement to The Lantern. “We take this matter seriously and are actively investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident while working closely with university officials and local law enforcement.” Mitchell added: “Sigma Alpha Epsilon holds its collegiate members to high standards of conduct and accountability. Behavior that violates these standards has no place in our organization. We are committed to holding those responsible accountable and will take appropriate action based on the findings of the investigation.”

Source: The Lantern, Ohio State University

A fraternity with a long national record

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, founded in 1856 at the University of Alabama, is one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the United States. It also carries a record no other fraternity has: a Bloomberg News investigation published in 2013 found nine deaths linked to drinking, drugs and hazing at Sigma Alpha Epsilon events between 2006 and 2013 — more than at any other Greek organization — and labelled it the country's “deadliest” fraternity. More than 100 of its chapters had been disciplined by universities since 2007, and at least 15 chapters had been suspended or closed in the three years before the investigation. In March 2014, months after the Bloomberg report, the fraternity took the extraordinary step of abolishing pledging across all of its chapters, saying the two-tier membership system fuelled hazing.

Source: Inside Higher Ed

An interim suspension is a temporary measure, not a final verdict: it stops the chapter from holding events, recruiting or operating as a recognized organization while the investigation runs, and it can later be lifted, extended or replaced by a longer suspension or a permanent loss of recognition. In Ohio, cases with any hazing element are also shaped by Collin's Law, the state's strengthened anti-hazing law, which raised criminal penalties for hazing and tightened what universities must do when it is reported.

What happens next

Three tracks now run in parallel: the Columbus police and arson-unit investigation into how the fire started and whether a crime occurred; Ohio State's own disciplinary process, which will decide the Ohio Theta chapter's longer-term fate; and the national fraternity's internal review. The first facts still missing are medical: the condition of the two people who were burned, and whether they are Ohio State students. For the thousands of families — including many Punjabi and other South Asian families in the United States and Canada — who send their children to large American public universities, the case is a sharp reminder of how quickly an off-campus party can turn dangerous, and of how, in this case, the alarm was raised not by a 911 call but by a viral video a day later.