St. Patrick's Day party turns wild!

It gets exciting when something a couple of blocks away makes the national news, and that's exactly what happened yesterday!

First we drove up Richmond Row here in London where all the college and university students hang out!

Being the nosy type.........., I followed them!



Next, I remembered how Fanshawe College Students seemed to run amuck about this time every year, so I was driving down Oxford St when all of a sudden there were cop cars and firs trucks all over the place.

LONDON, Ont. - Out-of-control partying -- fueled by a burst of warm weather -- brought police and firefighters swooping down in a student rental district near Fanshawe College Thursday.

More than 100 green-clad revelers celebrating St. Patrick's Day set a mattress afire and were drinking in the street before authorities arrived.

Firefighters responded at 506 Thurman Circle around 5 p.m. and found a burnt mattress in the street outside one home.

Three police cruisers arrived and a man drinking a beer in the street was arrested.

But after the police left the scene, the partiers - many said they were college students - continued their rowdy behaviour, throwing debris, drinkng in public and yelling.

A spokesperson for Fanshawe College wasn't immediately available for comment.

It's not the first time the student-dominated neighbourhood has errupted in trouble.

Last March a woman was stabbed and another pepper-sprayed during a large fight outside a house party on Thurman Circle. The same street was the scene of a disturbance in 2009 when about 500 people pelted police with beer bottles and 22 were arrested.

In September 2008, groups of off-campus students set fire to large piles of furniture on Fleming Dr., just east of Thurman Circle. In response to the mayhem, police set up a mobile command post, beefed up patrols of the neighbourhood and handed out heavy fines to landlords who didn't clear debris and furniture from their properties.

Fanshawe has cracked down on rowdy students in recent years, along with the police, with the school tightening its code of behaviour to extend to off-campus areas. Problem students can face expulsion.

(Ya have to hand it to those college kids, they sure know how to have a good time! -Ed.)

By DALE CARRUTHERS, QMI Agency dale.carruthers@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/DaleatLFPress

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/03/18/17665536.html