Two Winthrop House seniors this week won an appeal before the Administrative Board, which reversed a decision requiring them to withdraw from the College for setting a fire in their room.

A letter written by the Chief of the Cambridge Fire Department on half of the students apparently played a large role in the Board's decision.

James K. Rosenthal '85 and Edward R. Stiel '85 had incurred the original punishment after setting a fire in the bathroom of their Winthrop suite on November 8, according to Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson.

Rosenthal and Stiel ignited newspapers on top of a beer keg in order to "free the lavaratory of odor," then extinguished the blaze and left for Philadelphia to broadcast the Harvard Pennsylvania football game for the campus radio station Johnson said.

However, smoke from the extinguished fire triggered the House's fire alarm system which automatically notifies the local fire department, Johnson added.

Harvard Police and the Cambridge Fire Department subsequently investigated the incident.

Cambridge Fire Chief Thomas V. Scott said that the officers on the scene found no property damage and that his department did not bring charges against the students.

"[The fire] wasn't even a plank, they were trying to eliminate an odor," Scott said.

Clemency

He said he wrote the letter to the Administrative Board in order to "look for a little leniency" for Rosenthal and Stiel.

"I don't like to interfere," Scott said "I wouldn't do it unless I was doing the proper thing."

He added that this is the first time in his two and-one-half years as Cambridge Fire Chief that he has petitioned the Administrative Board on a Harvard student's behalf.

Rosenthal, Stiel, and Administrative Board members declined to comment on the case.