Three ATO's Perish in Fraternity House Fire at Ole Miss
 

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) -- A fire swept through a fraternity house at
the University of Mississippi early Friday, killing three members,
school officials said.
The blaze at the brick and wood-frame Alpha Tau Omega house
broke out before dawn, and firefighters needed about two hours to
bring it under control, chapter adviser Al Bell said. Hours later,
smoke billowed out of where the roof had been.
School spokesman Mitchell Diggs confirmed the three deaths.

Copied from the original thread posted in Greek Life:

A really tragic thing. Our most sincere thoughts go out to ATO and the entire campus.

I can't agree strongly enough with ISUKappa about the importance of fire drills.

Another thing is having a plan. I recall a fire at the Beta house at my Alma Mater (Ohio U.) last year. By the time the fire department arrived, not only had everyone been evacuated, but they had taken a roll call and could account for everyone who was in the house. http://thepost.baker.ohiou.edu/archi...010602/n5.html

Fire is a real danger to Greek housing. Many times in the past, emergency exits have been blocked, smoke alarms have been deactivated and other rules broken. In addition, things like candles, hot lights, hotplates, etc. are in common use. It is also important to be sure electrical outlets aren't overloaded with electronics, refridgerators, etc. Smoking can be another huge problem.

Finally, while it can be expensive, sprinkler systems can save lives. At our international conference last month, a fire official from Florida offered a lot of tips on the kind to install and how to save money on the installation.

Please be sure this kind of thing doesn't happen to your chapter. Be smart and be safe.

I only have one issue with "fire drills" in fraternity houses (and this may not be the case now).

I dated a fraternity guy when I was in college and like most girls was over there during the night time hours. Every time there was going to be a fire drill, a house member would go through the house warning everyone that it would be that night.

What good is a fire drill if everyone knows about it (so many times they would either intentionally not be there or they wouldn't leave the house)?

I'll reiterate what I posted over there, here as well:

I can't stress enough the importance of having fire drills. They may be annoying, they may seem pointless, but they are necessary, if not mandatory for some chapters.

Check your bylaws or Risk Management guides; in my undergrad chapter we were required to have a random timed fire drill once a month--usually sometime in the middle of the night. Nobody but the RM chair, President and House Mom knew when they were going to be. Exit procedures were laminated and posted around the house. We also had an in/out system by our front door. The House mom could take one look at that board and know how many women were in the house that night (provided that people made sure to switch their tags) and get and accurate count. We were also required to tell our HM when we were having [female] guests spend the night, in case something were to happen.

The chapter I advise is currently researching sprinkler systems. We're planning on an alumnae fund-drive (okayed by our Headquarters) to help costs as well as increasing the girls' room/board slightly. There is a loan available through our Headquarters to help finance part of the cost as well. In addition, once it's installed, our insurance premiums are reduced by a certain percentage, so it will be beneficial, money-wise, in the long run even though the up-front costs may seem daunting.

Good point

Okay, please forgive me if this is a silly question...we lived on sorority halls so I don't know much about housing.

What if the house is on-campus? Kind of like a Greek Village that the university built? I would imagine that there would already be a sprinkler system in place b/c the university would be required to have them in place in all student residences, correct? In which case, mandatory fire drills would be required as per campus rules. So, would the house mother then be required to coordinate these drills through the university, or would the university come in and tell her there will be a drill on such & such day?

Does that make sense?

Kappa,

Excellent. You might contact Delt Headquarters for the name and phone number of the man who spoke to an alumni Risk Management session at our conference last month. I believe the phone number is still 1-800-DELTSXL.

He is a former state fire marshall I think, who now works for a company who deals with helping groups (like GLO's) save money on sprinkler systems by helping them deal with local code issues -- which apparantely can be a real quagmire for the uninformed.

Unfortunately, I walked into the end of his talk and didn't get his name and contact information.

Not a silly question at all.

You would think that would be the case, but it's not always.

Many dorms and other student living quarters are fairly old and were built before ordinances were passed, and in some cases were "grandfathered" because of the cost of adding sprinklers to older buildings.

If the university is smart, they spend the money anyway simply bacause it's the right thing to do -- or to cut down on their own liability.

One additional thing regarding fire drills. They should be timely. At Ohio U. (Beta House Fire mentioned above) they must be held within the first few days of every quarter -- shortly after new people may have moved in. That's important.

Okay, next silly question.

It appears to me that sororities stress the importance of house mothers moreso than fraternities.

None of the fraternity houses on my undergrad campus had a house mother (or house person) that lived in the house w/ them. I assume, then, that this is not a requirement?

The sororities (and the unhoused fraternities) on my undergrad campus are now moving into the Greek Village the university just built for them. I know for our group the "house mother" is going to be one of the sisters (at least, that's what I thought they said....I could have been mistaken of course. But I thought it was weird they were referring to a 20-yr-old girl as a house mom). I always thought that a house mother was someone older, out of school, that may or may not be associated w/ the GLO. How does that work then?

This is so sad. My thought go out to the brothers and to the families.

I agree. I think fire drills and fire safety is important. My chapter does not have a house and eve we discussed fire safety.

Sadly, one of the chapters I work with has had to put a halt to their sprinkler initiative because the university and city council keep getting in each other's way on this issue.

Why the university doesn't have all of the GLO's install the same sprinkler system they're using in the newer dorms is beyond me. I imagine the statute will stay on the back burner (no pun intended) until somebody dies in a fire and the lawyers start swooping in.

-BF

At the school I went to all of the GLO's live in University owned houses. We have been on campus since the 60's (all groups) so the houses aren't that old, but I have no idea if they were built especially for the University back then or what. None of them had sprinklers until about 1998/99 when the University renovated all of the houses.

In terms of fire drills, yes the University obviously mandates them and tells one person when they are occurring (the Pres I believe). But that doesn't stop that person from telling everyone else.

We have house managers (member of the house, I think this is a standard position for GLO's) as well as what is called a GHC (I think that's what they are called - Greek Housing Coordinators). And those people are members of the GLO but they are also employees of the University.

Boz,

That's exactly the kind of thing the guy I mentioned above helps deal with. I guess people are more likely to listen to a former State Fire Marshall than to each other.

Cut it out, in a situation like this there are NO silly questions.

I can't give you statistics, but it is my strong impression that in this day and age, only the larger fraternity chapters have House Mothers. It's generallly simply a matter of economics.

Some of our chapters have Proctors who are often Delt brothers who might be grad students who perform certain duties in return for free room or something along those lines.

Another problem with our smaller chapters, besides money, is having enough room in the shelter for a "Mom's" apartment. Many live in very small buildings.

I just was thinking back to when I was in college...the fraternity houses were off campus and generally very open. Anyone could pull up to the house at any point and just walk right on in, no questions asked. I would imagine houses w/ a house mother would not be that lax.

These houses were (as I'm sure most fraternity houses are) old and very rickety...and a few of them probably should have been condemned. I know that one of the houses did burn down about 2 years before I got there - and all people would mention when that subject was brought up was what a great party that was that night. :rolleyes:

Of course, I wasn't in any of these fraternities, so I don't know what types of fire drills or risk management procedures were in place...but I did spend quite a bit of time at one or two of them (only during the day of course ;)), and there didn't seem to be anything like that in place. I specifically remember one house had a fire extinguisher next to the kitchen, but every time it was replaced, it seems they'd get drunk, pull it down and spray it all over the house so the pledges would have something to clean up, or just b/c they thought it was funny.

Granted, most of the Old Houses do not have Sprinklers Systems that is being required today. Called Grand Fathered.

Does anyone think that Fire Drills are followed, not.

LXA does have an Inititave that there is a low cost loan system that is in built to have Sprinkler systems built into the New House. This is paid for by lower Insuance Rates.

As far as putting Sprinkler Systems in older houses, that gets very cost Prohibitive. But I wonder, what the cost of a life is worth.:(

My Heart Goes out to the Brothers Of ATO in Their Lose. It has to be devasataing for them.

Do any of you guys have fire departments close to campus or on campus? I have only seen one campus with a fire department within the campus, it was over at UT-Knoxville. It was approximately three or so blocks from their Greek Row. I know our campus has a fire station about 3 blocks down but we are a small town/campus so it would not be as much of a hassle to get to campus if there was ever an incident.

I'm very glad that the Tuscaloosa fire dept. is only about 1/4 mile away from Sorority Row.

We also have fire drills at the beginning of each semester conducted by the Fire Marshall. I figured that all schools did that?

Sprinkler systems are the only method of fire prevention that is reliable and effective. No one has ever died in a fire in the US where there was a working sprinkler system. Other preventive measures like fire extinguishers, fire alarms, and fire drills may help to save lives, but they're not reliable or 100% effective. Only sprinkler systems are (to date) 100% effective at saving lives. In my opinion, anything else is just tinkering at the margins.

The city of Ames is looking into requiring the greek community at Iowa State to install sprinkler systems. I know a few chapterhouses already have them (mostly sorority houses), and our house corporation is smart and is requiring a sprinkler system be installed when our house is renovated.

I'm amazed in the fires that have occured at Iowa State's greek system in the last 15-20yrs (3 fraternity and 2 sorority ones that I can think of) that nobody has died here.

My thoughts are with ATO.

I am an Ole Miss alum and we are all so saddened by this tragedy. Ole Miss is very much a family. ATO did have a house mother who was in the house at the time and she did escape. Fraternities at Ole Miss do have house mothers, but in my experience they pretty much kept out of the way and people were free to come and go. The basement area of the house was called the dungeon and it is not suprising 2 of the boys were killed there. It would be amazing if anyone got out of there. It just tears me up that these fires are so common and nothing has been done about it. I don't know how any fraternity can even get insured.

At Ole Miss alone since the 90's, there have been fires in the Phi Kappa Tau, Phi Delta Theta, and my own Zeta Tau Alpha houses, plus Crosby women's dorm. No one was killed in any of those fires, but students were displaced for months while expensive repairs were made. The Phi Tau house was completely destroyed and rebuilt just 3-4 years ago; it was the most recent fire.

There was a fraternity house fire at SMU, I believe it was Sig Ep, shortly before I attended there in the early 90's and I even witnessed a dorm fire at SMU. It was surreal. I was walking by on the sidewalk outside and there was fire coming out of a first floor window. I couldn't see anyone around anywhere. It was like a dream. I started screaming "fire, fire" and someone else finally came up and started yelling also. The people in the window above the fire opened their window and we yelled at them to get everyone out. They couldn't believe there was a fire right under them. Fortunately, people did begin to leisurely emerge from the building and someone called the fire department. The damage was minimal and no one was hurt. But I was so frustrated and angry to learn that someone had left a candle near long curtains, both of which were prohbited, and then left the room. What if I hadn't walked by? Two more minutes might have meant a much worse outcome. College students do not take fire safety seriously and their safety is not being enforced. I have that same impotent feeling once again now that members of my Ole Miss family have now been senselessly killed in a place where we all used to have fun. It is going to happen again and again until there are changes. There is such an obsession with hazing that all the terminolgy regarding sororoties and fraternities has been changed so no one's feelings get hurt, but the deadly threat of fire is ignored.

For all of your information, here is the contact information for the speaker I mentioned earlier who talked about sprinkler systems and working with local codes and city councils:

Buddy DeWar
National Fire Sprinkler Assoc.

850-222-2070
dewar@nfsa.org

Here is a link on the web:

http://www.nfsa.org/departments/regi...ldirector.html

The city of Ames has a fire station a block south of campus, right in the heart of campustown, which works wonders for fast response to the faulty alarms and prank alarms on campus, as well as for a central command during riots.
Greekland begins 2 blocks east of the fire station, but there are a few fraternities just up the street 2 blocks from them as well.

Buddy spoke at our housing conference in Vegas last year. He knows his stuff, and I thought that he was a great speaker.

Although not Risk Management related, this quote from the Student Newspaper really caught my attention in these times when the Fraternity System is under fire from many directions:

"We've seen an outpouring of donations from strangers and friends alike. We've seen prayers from around the nation. And while they're both the most revered and criticized sect of Ole Miss, the greek community has again proven its worth in a time of tragedy. Every black ribbon around a greek house's column speaks for the hundreds of men or women who treat this loss as personal.

Every blue and gold ribbon tells Alpha Tau Omega that despite the everyday divisions on this campus right now the Delta Psi chapter of Alpha Tau Omega is thousands of people strong. In this case, it's important to remember that fall is also the time when brothers are made. The three men who lost their lives Friday morning were known first as brothers of a common cause. The history of ATO says that the fraternity was founded not in imitation or reaction to any other fraternal order. It came from Christian principles, and now the mothers, fathers, siblings and friends of those who perished need exactly that. ATO is reaping what it's sown since 1865: an idealistic attempt to foster a Christian community. We should all take notice."

The fire at the ATO was reported to be electrical. Cannpot remember the exact terminology, but sounded like over loaded plugs.

LXA does have a program set up for low cost loans to place Fire Sprinkler systems in houses.

The rub comes to the point in referbing older houses to put these systems in.

While I hate to post something that's bad PR for my sorority, I thought this article was appropriate to post here b/c this is obviously an important issue:

Pledging event lands UNH sorority in hot water

By BRUNO MATARAZZO Jr.

Democrat Staff Writer


DURHAM — A University of New Hampshire sorority will face charges in court after fire officials say the student group violated state fire laws. The misdemeanor charges stem from an incident which took place during an Alpha Xi Delta pledging event on Oct. 8.

Fire Chief Ron O’Keefe said the sorority members covered smoke detectors with plastic bags for an event involving approximately 200 candles. The sorority members apparently covered the detectors to prevent the lit candles from setting off the alarm. The plastic bags didn’t work though and the detectors were set off when the candles were blown out at about 7:50 p.m. on Oct. 8. The group also blocked fire exits with furniture after they cleared out a room for the event. The violations were not deliberate, O’Keefe said, and it is the first violation for the group.

"Common sense didn’t prevail," O’Keefe said of the incident.

Following the incident, fire officials said they will work with the university’s sororities to educate them on fire safety.

This is the second incident in October involving a Greek organization violating fire codes. Ten days after the Alpha Xi Delta, another UNH Greek organization was involved in a similar incident. Fire officials said fraternity pledges allegedly set off fireworks and blocked exits at the Sigma Beta fraternity house as a prank. The fireworks device generated smoke to fill up the second- and third-floor hallways and emergency exits that were purposely blocked. O’Keefe said that incident is still under investigation by the Police and Fire departments.


Democrat Staff Writer Bruno Matarazzo, Jr. can be reached at 742-4455, Ext. 5311, or bmatarazzo@fosters.com

Link to article

We had a small house off campus that held 14 sisters - no adults (it was basically a regular house with lots of bedrooms). There was a sister who was responsible for paying the cable bills, organizing the job list etc. Her official title was house manager but sometimes she was called house mom just for fun. It isn't the same as a "real" house mom who gets compensated for the job.

At otterbein, the houses get inspected every quarter (i believe). We must have operating smoke detectors and radon detectors. As much as it sucks during a false alarm at 5am...the westerville fire dept. is maybe 100 yards from my dorm, meaning it is 150 yards from my sorority house. The Westerville Fire Dept. Rolls out the brigade even for false alarms. In our campus-owned apts, peopel cooking noodles (not burning, just cooking) set off the alarms on a regular basis. But better safe than sorry.

I live across the street from ATO in the Beta house and I was there the morning the fire happened. I got up about 30 minutes after it started so when I got outside the fire trucks were already spraying the house. Some of my brothers said they heard fire alarms going off in the house before the firefighters arrived. However, I was talking to one of the ATOs who lived there at the time and he said he was woken by the smoke, not the alarm. He had a burn on his arm, so he was lucky to make it out when he did. As for the official cause of the fire, the campus newspaper reported that the cause was undetermined, but it was not intentionally set nor electrical. As of last week there was some confusion over whether the case has been officially closed by the ATF or not.
Howard, Jordan, and Will, you will be missed.