Hours after the flames were put out at Palmer Fest, an infamous YouTube video of a girl from Illinois student surfaced and went viral.
Notorious phrases from the clip, such as the student asking “Are you cooking a pizza?” when she heard the smoke alarm going off, portrayed a perhaps lax atmosphere within the house during an otherwise tense situation.
Palmer Fest’s sudden end resulted in an investigation of the cause of the fire, which was reported to be arson. A $5,000 reward has since been offered to anyone with information leading to the person’s identification.
Inside the house at 11 Palmer St., Kristen Roseman, the Eastern Illinois student in the video, was concerned with the amount of smoke that was circulating throughout the kitchen area, she said.
“People kept telling me that there was no fire and that the smoke must be coming from the people smoking outside,” she said. “When someone else yelled that the house is on fire, everyone laughed and took a shot, then we ran out of the house.”
John Hicks, a resident of the house, wasn’t laughing.
“There’s smoke damage all over the place, and as of now, a lot of my stuff is unsalvageable,” he said. “It’s even worse for the two people in the house who don’t have renters insurance.”
Hicks, who says people broke into and entered his room and basement, said that the residents are accepting donations to assist in paying for a U-Haul and covering the damage.
“This kind of behavior is pathetic, and it’s time for people to grow up,” Hicks said. “Our house isn’t livable for the next three months.”
Hicks’ next-door neighbor, Boyd Brown of 15 Palmer St., said they got lucky because the fire did not affect their house.
“I was freaked out because if (11 Palmer) burned down, our house definitely would’ve been damaged,” he said. “I feel terrible for (the 11 Palmer residents), but I would’ve been so mad if our house was affected.”
Brian Grady, who filmed parts of the Palmer Fest events for Sway The Crowd Productions, said the video of Roseman initially became viral because it was only footage of someone that was in the house when the fire started, he said. The footage of Roseman was filmed by photographer Ryan Nord.
“We didn’t expect (the video) to go that viral when we made it,” Grady said. “We thought it would get 5,000 to 10,000 views, but not 87,000.”
Sway The Crowd Productions, which makes its videos for The Athens News, is now creating videos that take a different approach in showing OU’s reputation.
“It will be called Reputation Redefined, and we want to throw in some different perspectives but still keep the publicity going,” he said.
Sway The Crowd most recently released a video of Hicks sitting in his house discussing last Saturday’s events.
Nord’s YouTube video was the raw, uncut footage that led Roseman to become an Internet celebrity on websites such as Reddit and Facebook.
az346610@ohiou.edu
