Western officials are discussing taking more precautions to ensure Homecoming festivities are safe for students next year.

Howard Bailey, vice president for Student Affairs, said Homecoming parade participants next year may be required to have a fire extinguisher on every float.

That idea follows an incident at last week’s Homecoming parade when a float created by FarmHouse and Sigma Nu fraternities and Alpha Omicron Pi sorority caught fire after an electrical short on the float.

Charley Pride, director of student activities and organizations, said a float has never caught on fire before the parade, though some organizations burn their floats after the parade.

He said any new modifications will serve as safety precautions to protect students.

Pride said any changes to Homecoming float rules will be announced before the end of the school year after the Homecoming Committee meets again.

Travis Girten, a freshman from Wadesville, Ind., said he was on the float when it caught fire.

Girten, a FarmHouse pledge, said headlights on the tissue paper car on top of the float caught fire when they heated up.

He said he and the four other men manning the float tried to put the fire out themselves, but that made it worse.

“It was crazy and chaotic,” Girten said. “The car flipped over, and someone pulled it off the float.”

He said the situation was very dangerous.

Girten said he thinks FarmHouse will continue using moving parts on their future Homecoming floats, but he’s unsure about lights.

He said he thinks adding fire extinguishers to floats would be OK as long as they weren’t visible.

Ed Moody, assistant chief of prevention for the Bowling Green Fire Department, said he thinks adding fire extinguishers is an excellent idea.

He said the combination of tissue paper and hairspray, which organizations use to make floats, is highly flammable and dangerous.

Ginny Hensley, a member of the Homecoming Committee, said the committee hasn’t discussed changing guidelines on float construction.

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