Nineteen-year-old Austin Davis, one of the sophomores standing outside the house, said he ran inside to investigate.
Once inside the house, he noticed a ring of fire forming on the fraternity's backyard, near their patio.
Davis went to grab a rag from inside the house and then ran to the backyard to swat down the flames. Davis said he noticed that a lighter, strewn across the backyard, created the explosion. He said he had no clue how the lighter got on the backyard.
Sophomore Miranda Bray said she was pulling up to the Kappa Sigma house to pick up her friends for dinner when she noticed the fiery explosion. She grabbed a water hose and began to douse the flames.
Mercer Police arrived on the scene after receiving a call from a student. The officers took the lighter and then left the scene to figure out who called, Bray said.
There were no injuries and the fire was extinguished by Davis and his friend on Sunday afternoon at 3:07 p.m. No fire ambulances were called to the scene.
A charred black hole, roughly 5 feet in diameter, serves as a visual reminder of what happened.
