A UF student and fraternity brother was arrested for setting off a fire extinguisher in the Sigma Nu Fraternity house early Thursday morning, University Police said.
Sunil Kumar Ghosal, 19, was playing with a fire extinguisher on the second floor of the fraternity house, witnesses told police, according to an arrest report. Ghosal used the fire extinguisher twice and left.
When the building’s fire alarm went off, residents evacuated the house and waited outside until police arrived, according to the report. Gainesville Fire Rescue made sure there was no fire in the house and then silenced the alarm, police said.
Two residents who witnessed Ghosal use the fire extinguisher twice agreed to take an officer to where Ghosal lived, according to the report.
After his arrest, Ghosal told officers he did spray the fire extinguisher twice in the house, and he said he was just messing around, police said.
Ghosal is currently a UF industrial and systems engineering junior, university spokesperson John Hines wrote in an email.
Ghosal was charged with hindering firefighting equipment and taken to the Alachua County Jail. He was released on his own recognizance just before noon Thursday.
He could not be reached for comment.
Contact Robert Lewis at rlewis@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @Lewis__Robert.
Sunil Kumar Ghosal
