Fighting fires: WSU official speaks on couch burning

PULLMAN — Washington State University is encouraging students and residents of Pullman to celebrate college football in alternative ways that don’t require sacrificing furniture for the Cougs.

It was a busy season for the town’s first responders. More than a handful of couches, mattresses and dumpsters were ignited following WSU football home games.

Pullman police logs show at least eight such instances on College Hill this fall semester, which includes two in November, four during the annual Apple Cup football game in September and another set in late September.

Associate Dean of Students Karen Metzner said she believes there are plenty of other ways to show school spirit that don’t involve lighting things on fire.

“It’s difficult to say why exactly this is happening,” she said. “I think that there’s a lot of energy and emotion associated with both wins and losses. … Because folks are so escalated, I think that groupthink mentality can sometimes encourage the idea of destructive celebration.”

The trend has been dated back to at least 2016. University records and past Moscow-Pullman Daily News reporting show numerous reports of various furniture items set ablaze in Pullman after Cougar football victories and losses.

There has been an increase in small blazes this year compared to past ones. Metzner speculates the rise could partly be due to a strong start in the season and heightened excitement for the team with conference changes.

“We saw, especially in early fall, there was a lot of Cougs-versus-everybody energy around our football team,” she said. “With PAC-12 changes and having multiple back-to-back winning games, I think some of those things brought the activity back into the limelight.”

Metzner said the tradition is not unique to WSU. There have been disruptive post-game celebrations, including couch burning and rioting, seen around the country. She said to some extent it happens internationally at major sporting events too.

Past reporting shows no one was hurt during the small fires, and the situations never escalated.

Metzner said the trend is a dangerous one, and could lead to unfortunate outcomes.

“Couch burning is a really unsafe activity,” Metzner said. “Things can escalate so quickly … it certainly can easily cause injury.”

She said there’s always the potential of fire spreading, especially since WSU’s football season is during Pullman’s driest time. But there’s always a risk of the fire spreading, she added, even during the cooler temperatures and rain experienced later in the semester.

In addition to the risk of sparking a larger fire, Metzner said the activity ties up valuable community resources and takes away from Pullman’s emergency response.

And Metzner added the mentality is also dangerous.

“Groupthink can really cause escalatory behavior,” she said. “Or create some perception that the activity or similar things are okay when it really isn’t.”

The university discourages burning furniture or starting fires to any degree. Metzner said it’s challenging for the institution to address the activity because it’s hard to know the specific individuals who are lighting things ablaze.

“Addressing it really requires that our community hold each other accountable for positively representing each other,” she said.

There are several ways to show enthusiasm for WSU football, Metzner said. One being Andy Grammer’s song “Back Home,” which is regularly sung at football games that was made a tradition by the community.

She added that students are abundantly creative, and she knows they can continue to develop safe ways to involve the community’s excitement around the Cougs.

“There’s endless opportunities for safe ways to celebrate,” she said. “It just requires that we … as a community, and as students, find commonality in that shared experience that isn’t putting other people at risk.”

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com.