Three eager University students were hospitalized on March 28 after failing to properly prepare for the cold weather. The incidents occurred in the afternoon in the backyard of a downtown house where students sought refuge from the cold by huddling around four heat lamps spread around the property.

The students in question pressed their hands against the hottest part of the heat lamp in an attempt to increase their body heat. They said they planned to keep them there until they felt warm, which turned out to be their biggest flaw as it resulted in their hospitalization. The three were each treated for burns of varying degrees on their hands. In order to protect the privacy of the students, their names will not be released at this time.

The fraternity that hosted the party only felt partially responsible for the incident.

“Yeah, I dunno. We didn’t realize that the heat lamps were going to cause such an issue. We kind of just thought it would be a nice thing to do, ya know? Get the heat lamps and keep girls warm and stuff. They were expensive!” one fraternity member said.

“We had no idea they were going to press their hands against them. Literally who does that?” another member said.

One of the students who received medical attention was wearing a shirt with no sleeves and the other two students were wearing sundresses that they had just bought. They could not wait until another weekend to wear them despite the weather peaking at a mere 24 degrees that day. The wind chill was reported to be 19 degrees.

“I honestly didn’t check the weather before walking downtown. It was so warm on Friday so I kind of just assumed it would still be warm on Saturday,” one of the students who hurt her hands said. 

When asked why she thought it would be a good idea to put her hands directly on the heat lamp, the student declined to comment.