UNL Phi Gam fire
 

The article is found here. I believe this is the second fire this year at a UNL fraternity.

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/...3330683460.txt

First, it's great that there were no deaths or injuries.

Bags of shredded paper?

Old test files? Whatever.

There have been threads on this before in Risk Management.

Fires are among the biggest causes of insurance claims for fraternities (along with falls from high places and fights).

A few years ago, there was an early morning fire at the Beta House at Ohio University. When the Fire Department arrived, they found all of the members outside (including one surprised young lady who hurt her arm jumping from a window) with a full accounting (roll call) of everyone who had been in the house. O.U. requires a fire drill of each Greek house at least once per academic quarter.

It is worrisome that, according to the newspaper article on this (Nebraska) incident, when the University Police searched the house, some people were found still asleep in their rooms -- especially since many fire related deaths are from smoke rather than flames. The Ohio University model may be a good one to follow.

With students still sleeping it makes me wonder if this house has smoke detectors or fire alarms. Someone who was around should have pulled it.

True-but if one were to factor in some sort of "party" the night before, the phyical/mental shape of those involve may not have been 100%.

I know that something simular happened at my old chapter house....not only did Brothers not get out of bed, some "fought off" firemen.......

When did the Phi Delts become the Phi Gams?

Just wondering....I've been away for awhile ;)

You may wish to re-read story link:
Phi Gamma Delta NOT Phi Delta Theta chapter house.

We all mis-read things-not to worry.

Sorry, I did, that's a new one since I was there.....:o

I kept thinking--well, that's not the first time the Phi Delt house has caught on fire.....

Not to worry about a mistake in reading and waht is in the mind when one does.

Just thank goodness no one was hurt or killed.

Still laffing at some of the things in the article!:D

I posted a follow-up article in the Greek Life forum.

Recent fires raise questions on fire safety in greek housing

Surely you haven't forgotten the Fiji's? that's who is in question...

I'm glad no one got hurt and hopefully there was only minimal damage...and I'll keep some of my other thoughts to myself.

FIJI Islander....do they still have that party?
 

Yeah, after I read that a few times, I was like....oh, yeah....the FIJI's. But since that was a few days after the fact, I figured nobody cared whether I figured it out or not.

They were indeed there when I was, and have been for many years. I was just remembering all the antics of the Phi Delts of my day and thought a fire was not an unusual occurence, and then I lost my mind.

Never heard them called Phi Gams in my life, but then again....I am old!

Yeah, I've never called them phi gams either...

When I was in college the Fijis always did a calendar with "hot" sorority girls (we didn't call it "hot" then, but I've forgotten the old time terminology). Anyway, there was a Gamma Phi who shared my fairly common name, who was in the calendar, so I got LOTS of interesting calls that year! Most of the time, all I had to say was that I was so and so the Kappa and that was the end of it, thankfully. Let's just say she got around a little more than I did.:D

It really makes me wish that Congress would consider that bill allowing donations for greek housing to become tax deductable.

One of our alums is a tax attorney. He thinks he's devised a manner to make donations for certain parts of the house to be tax deductable. We're slowly working towards buying a home, and when we do, sprinklers and other fire retardent materials are a must due to local fire codes.

We were looking at building a shelter at University of Northern Colorado, and as I recall it is possible for a fraternity educational foundation to fund the building of "educational" areas such as study rooms and libraries using tax deductable dollars dontated for those specific purposes.

That's exactly it.

I think Un. Kansas was where the law was changed from any part of a house to educational only for some reason.

We can only hope that the bill gets passed.

I do know that there is a consortium of Greeks who lobbying for this bill.

It could make a big difference in repairs, new building, and adding safety features.

Now, someone has to float the argument that the rooms of members are used (at least some of the time) for studying (opposite sex anatomy? -- sorry, I couldn't help it.), and the dining area and/or chapter room is used for educational lectures, etc.

Maybe put a computer in every room?

That could put a big dent in the total cost.

Prank, carelessly tossed cigarette blamed for Fiji fire
By: Andy Boyle
Issue date: 1/9/07 Section: News
Daily Nebraskan

Five bags of shredded paper, one hallway and an accidentally discarded cigarette led to the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity fire in September, according to officials.

Members of the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity, or Fiji, were attempting to fill up another student's hallway with at least five garbage bags of shredded paper as a prank, said Lincoln Fire Inspector Rick Campos.

Campos said the students were planning to fill another student's room - "stuffing his room," as the students called it - and then that student would have to clean it up.

When they found the student's door locked, the fraternity members decided to leave the shredded paper in the hallway, Campos said.

The mess was then supposed to be cleaned up by underclassmen, he said, as he understood it.

The students then went to a room to smoke cigarettes, Campos said. One cigarette was accidentally thrown into the pile of papers or near it, which led to the fire, he said.

"The students voluntarily came in and gave statements, and just carelessly disregarded smoking materials," Campos said.

For more of the article, please click on the link provided above.

How sad to hear.

But, that is why it is called an accident isn't it?

Small things at the time seem small unless the get blown up by a fire or what ever else, where property was lost, but at least no lives were lost.

Actually, if one could find the over all fire stats, there would be more individual home fires that happen by many reasons.

I know, I have been there with a fire on the stove from cooking.:(