The following information was obtained from UW-Eau Claire Police Department records.

Up in flames
At 3:23 a.m. on March 12, a campus officer, accompanied by the Eau Claire Fire Department, was dispatched to Karlgaard Towers Hall North. The Communication Center said they received a 911 call about smoke being visible in the hallway near a room on the eighth floor.

Once at Towers North, the officer met with the eighth floor RA and the Hall Director outside of the room in question. He immediately saw light smoke in the hallway near the room, and noticed a male subject in the doorway.

The RA said he was awoken by someone shouting in the hallway near his room. He said when he opened his door, he saw the male subject spraying a fire extinguisher in the hallway near his room.

The RA asked the subject what he was doing, to which he responded he didn’t know. The RA said he could tell the subject had been drinking alcohol. He said he immediately contacted the Hall Director and the Communication Center to report the incident.

The officer relayed the information to the responding fire units. The Communication Center said the Eau Claire Fire Department would continue to the scene to make sure everything was okay and collect information for a report.

The officer saw the fire extinguisher in the entrance of the male subject’s room, and noticed the activation pin and security zip tie had been removed. The two items were laying on the floor near the entrance to the subject’s room.

He then made contact with the subject, who was still standing in the doorway. He introduced himself, explained the complaint and identified the subject. The subject was discovered to be underage. Immediately, the officer noticed a strong odor of intoxicants coming from the subject’s breath.

The subject was also swaying and slurring his words as he spoke with the officer. The officer then asked why he had sprayed the fire extinguisher, and the subject said he didn’t know why and that he had been drinking.

The officer asked how much alcohol he had consumed. He said he consumed around 15-16 16oz cans of beer. He said this is a typical amount for him to consume. The subject added he also had several shots of vodka.

The subject again said he didn’t know why he took the fire extinguisher from its housing unit at the end of the hall. He told the officer he had too much beer to remember. The officer then asked for and received consent to enter the subject’s room.

While inside, the officer noticed several empty beer cans on the floor. He asked the subject if there was any other alcohol inside the room, and the subject told him there were some unopened beer cans in the mini fridge. There was also an empty vodka bottle in the fridge. Nothing else of interest was found.

After discovering the subject had no wants, wasn’t on probation and had no prior disorderly conduct or underage alcohol-related offenses, the officer escorted the subject to the men’s bathroom to dump out the remaining beer cans.

The Hall Director told the officer he would take and secure the activated fire extinguisher inside his office. The officer then took the male subject to his squad car, and performed a safety pat-down of his outer clothing. No items of interest were found.

The subject agreed to a Preliminary Breath Test (PBT). The PBT showed the subjects blood alcohol content to be .21. The subject was issued a citation for underage drinking, with a fine amount of $263.50, and the officer explained the Eau Claire County Alcohol First Offender Program.