SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — An annual block party Thursday night at an off-campus housing complex for Slippery Rock University Students sent more than a dozen people to the hospital with alcohol-related symptoms.

This is the second such party that occurred in the township this year.

Ken Taggart, chief of Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company, said emergency responders from his department were tied up from about 8:30 p.m. Thursday to 3:30 a.m. today, taking party-goers to the hospital and responding to manually-pulled fire alarms during the party at University Village on Vinyard Circle.

Taggart said EMS responders took 14 patients to the hospital, most of them described as “alcohol poisoning,” and called in by the state police.

One man was taken to the hospital about 11 p.m. with a cut on one hand, said a supervisor at Butler Ambulance Service, which responded because all of the fire department’s three ambulances were already handling patients.

The event also brought out a significant state police response. Trooper Dan Kesten, a communications officer at the barracks in Butler, said at least eight troopers were dispatched to the area of University Village.

The state police also increased patrols in the area, and handled 15 incidents Thursday night and this morning which ranged from drug possession and underage drinking to several DUIs and one incident of someone resisting arrest.

Kesten said the disturbances were mainly concentrated at University Village, but there were scattered incidents at other off-campus housing complexes as well.

SRU spokesman Rita Abent said this morning that university officials had notified state police of the party before Thursday night, and said the gathering was not a university-sanctioned event.

The housing complex’s twitter account celebrated the event as “UVSR 5th Annual Block Party” on Friday, retweeting photographs and videos of crowds of people gathering and dancing along with the hashtag “UVBlockParty15.”

A telephone number for University Village rang unanswered this morning. According to the complex’s web page, it is owned and operated by the Preiss Co., a North Carolina-based firm that says it is the third-largest provider of off-campus housing for students in the country.

The block parties are a seasonal occurrence at off-campus housing complexes near the university.

At least four people were hurt in April during the annual event at The Heights apartment complex on Route 173 in the township.

Among the injured at that party were two young women who were hit by an unoccupied runaway car. A man also landed in the hospital after he was hit on his head with a beer bottle.

Police made nearly a dozen arrests, mostly for drunken driving and public drunkenness, at the event dubbed “Pig Roast 2K15,” which drew an estimated crowd of up to 3,000.