East Lansing will seek charges after about 50 fires following the Michigan game

EAST LANSING — East Lansing police are building cases from social-media video and plan to seek criminal charges against people who set more than 50 fires, many of them couches, after Michigan State beat Michigan last Saturday. No names have been released.

At a Friday press conference, Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth said his office will put resources with the East Lansing police to find who set the fires. “These nuisance fires are associated with a win, a loss or for some other reason, they’re not fun. They’re not funny. Frankly, they’re idiotic, and they’re super dangerous,” he said. He also said the slogan people use about Spartans making the world better “certainly doesn’t mean set 50 intentional fires.”

The fire department answered dozens of calls in a 12-hour window from Saturday night into early Sunday. More than half, about 50, were fires, Kendra Conely reported for WKAR. Wriggelsworth said the volume backed up 911. “We only have so many call takers. We only have so many dispatchers.” Calls waiting in that queue, he said, kept crews from other people who needed them. The fires, he said, “have to stop.”

Toxic smoke, and a bill the city wants paid

Fire Chief John Newman said couch fabric and other furniture fibers are toxic when they burn. After the flames were out, public works spent extra hours clearing debris and opening streets. He said thousands of dollars will go to street repairs and to overtime for firefighters, police, and other city staff. The city plans to seek restitution for the damage and the personnel cost from people found to have been involved. “East Lansing and Michigan State University are known for many things, but couch burning will not be one of them,” he said.

Assistant Police Chief Matt Kreft stood with Newman and Wriggelsworth. The department is asking anyone with more video to contact Detective Andy Ferguson. The address is in the WKAR story. This account does not repeat it as if a charge had been filed. A charge is what the city says it will seek. It is not a list of defendants.

What the university said

MSU spokesperson Mark Buillion, in a statement Friday afternoon, said the university “strongly condemns the illegal and intentional destruction of property” near campus after the Michigan game and “strongly urges the judicial system to prosecute and punish any participants in these illegal acts to the fullest extent of the law.” The city said it is working with the university on accountability. The statement does not say a student has been charged, suspended, or identified.

The photograph is downtown East Lansing in 2022. It does not show a fire or a street the crews had to clear.

Sources:
WKAR, Kendra Conely, “East Lansing police plans to pursue criminal charges against couch burners,” Nov. 13, 2026, https://www.wkar.org/wkar-news/2026-11-13/east-lansing-police-plans-to-pursue-criminal-charges-against-couch-burners
Photo: WeaponizingArchitecture, “Downtown East Lansing (2022).jpg”, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADowntown_East_Lansing_%282022%29.jpg

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Tags: Lansing · East Lansing · Police · Michigan State