Bowling Green junior Ty Tipton, along with other members of FarmHouse fraternity, pull apart their float after it caught on fire before the start of the Homecoming parade Friday evening. Before the fire broke out, the float was awarded second place. BEN SEVERANCE/HERALD

A fire burned half of an award winning Homecoming float in tonight’s parade.

At about 5 p.m., an electrical short caught Homecoming float on fire, said Captain Kerry Hatchett, patrol commander for campus police. The float was built by Alpha Omicron Pi sorority and Sigma Nu and FarmHouse fraternities.

No one was injured in the incident.

Springfield sophomore Ethan Nally, a member of FarmHouse, said the right headlight of a fake car on the float sparked.

“I said ‘unplug it,’ and then it sparked again, and the whole thing went up,” he said.

Russellville sophomore Emily White, an AOPi member, said the float won second place in float judging before it caught on fire.

White and Russellville sophomore Ann Michele Reynolds, also in AOPi, said they were disappointed that the float wouldn’t make it down the Hill in its full form.

“We put all this work into it, and now it’s gone,” Reynolds said.

But the half-burnt float was still in the parade.

Photographer Ben Severance contributed to this story.

Bystanders help put out a Homecoming float fire before the Homecoming parade Friday evening. Sigma Nu and FarmHouse fraternities and Alpha Omicron Pi sorority built the float, which caught fire before the Homecoming parade started. BEN SEVERANCE/HERALD

Bowling Green firefighters showed up to put out a Homecoming float fire before the Homecoming parade on Friday. The fire started due to an electrical problem that ignited the hair spray and tissue paper-covered float, according to Western police. BEN SEVERANCE/HERALD