Student found stabbed in dorm fire

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- A college student who had what appeared to be stab wounds was pulled from a dormitory fire that authorities were investigating to determine if it was deliberately set, the state fire marshal's office said Sunday.\n"Apparently this is a crime scene," said Ken Meredith, a spokesman for the fire marshal's office. "There is a young woman suffering from stab wounds, and it appears that the fire was set deliberately."\nBob Skipper, a spokesman for Western Kentucky University, said the fire seems "suspicious right now."\nThe victim was in critical condition with extensive burns and other wounds at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., about 60 miles south of Bowling Green, he said.\n"We are aware that there are other wounds, but at this point we don't know what caused them or how they are related to all of this," Skipper said. He said authorities had talked to the victim's roommate, who wasn't home at the time of the fire.\nUniversity and police officials would not release the name of the injured student.\nStudents and family members, however, identified the student as Katie Autry, and an online university directory listed a Melissa K. Autry as living in Hugh Poland Hall room 214, the room where the fire occurred.\nA Kentucky State Police arson investigator was at the dormitory Sunday afternoon.\nAbout 50 people were in Hugh Poland Hall when the fire started shortly after 4 a.m. in a room on the second floor, Skipper said.\nThe fire was confined to one room in the nine-story dorm, which houses about 300 students, and it was put out by the dormitory's sprinkler system, he said. All those who had been inside the dorm had been accounted for Sunday morning.\nAndrea Pendleton, a freshman from Lexington who lives in the dorm, said she saw two firefighters carry the burned student out by her arms and legs.\n"All of her clothes were burned off," Pendleton said. She said emergency officials treated the victim for about 15 minutes before taking her away in an ambulance.\nIn the dormitory, there was smoke and water damage throughout the second floor, but students who live on the other floors were being allowed to retrieve personal items Sunday afternoon, Skipper said.\nThe university is just wrapping up its spring session, with final exams scheduled this week.\nStudents milling around the dorm Sunday said it was the second fire in the dorm this semester. No injuries or evacuations occurred in the first fire, students said.\nBowling Green is a city of about 50,000 people located about 110 miles south of Louisville.