Investigators say a fire that gutted a Sansom Street house earlier this month was set deliberately.
The March 3 blaze at 4042 Sansom St. sent seven students, six of them from Penn, to the hospital.
"Based on the information that [investigators] gathered, and after reconstructing the scene, it was determined that the fire was intentionally set," Philadelphia Fire Executive Chief Daniel Williams said.
Arson is defined as intentionally starting a fire, though not necessarily with the aim to cause damage.
Williams added that he could not provide a motive or any more details about the case because investigations are ongoing.
House resident and Wharton senior Ricardo Franco said that he and the other students who lived there have been instructed to not comment on the situation. He added, however, that they are cooperating with the investigation.
Other students who lived in the house either couldn't be reached or also refused to comment.
Williams said that when determining the cause of a fire, the fire marshal will study flame patterns, lines of demarcation between what was burnt and what wasn't and the amount of damage that occurred.
The fire marshal will also try to eliminate causes such as electrical energy or gas that could have caused an explosion.
"Many times the fire itself and the reconstruction of the scene will bear out what" the cause is, Williams said.
But he added that examining physical evidence and conducting interviews can often be sufficient to determine the cause of a fire.
"You don't need a motive to identify the cause as being intentional," he said.
Williams said that arson is actually a fairly common cause of fires.
Of the 29 fire-related deaths in Philadelphia since January 2005, seven of them have been the result of arson, he said.
The fire, which occurred in the early morning, sent six Penn students and one Bryn Mawr College student to the hospital. They have all since been released.
Four of the students jumped from second-floor windows to safety, while two were rescued from third-story windows by the Philadelphia Fire Department and one escaped through the front door.
College senior Joe Russo was in the intensive care unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania following the fire for carbon monoxide poisoning and burns to his arm and was released March 10.
The Office of the Fire Marshal is conducting the investigation in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police Department.
