Iowa State students unharmed after tent fire at Hilton Coliseum
Iowa State students camping out for Monday night's basketball game against Kansas woke up in unpleasant fashion Friday morning.
One of the tents outside Hilton Coliseum caught fire at about 3:30 a.m., sending the three students inside and everyone else nearby scrambling for safety.
What's left of the tents #fire #ames pic.twitter.com/d4W6yLttW6
— Jason Terrell (@JA_Terrell) January 22, 2016
Everyone escaped without injury, Iowa State deputy chief of police Darin VanRyswyk told the Des Moines Register. The cause of the fire was a propane heater inside the tent, the newspaper reported.
The home game against Kansas may be the most anticipated clash of the season for Iowa State since the Jayhawks have won 11 straight Big 12 titles and the Cyclones are just a few days removed from toppling No. 1 ranked Oklahoma. Immediately after the win over the Sooners on Monday night, the most die-hard Iowa State students began sleeping outside Hilton Coliseum in frigid weather to secure the best seats to the Kansas game.
So cold @CycloneMBB they had 2 use ice fishing shack 2 camp out 4 Big Monday.I can bring hot chocolate if u need 😄 pic.twitter.com/lu9AlK5AZc
— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) January 17, 2016
The big question in the wake of Friday's morning's fire is whether the students whose tent burned down lose their place in the ticket line. Hopefully Iowa State officials make an exception for them. And hopefully they're a little more cautious with space heaters inside a tent in the future.
The student section at Hilton Coliseum should be lit, but the campout outside should not be.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
