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14 escape fraternity fire
Neighbor spots fire, helps students
By Michael Abramowitz
The Daily Reflector

Friday, January 30, 2009

Fourteen students awoke to the sound of fire alarms and escaped a burning fraternity house Friday morning, some by climbing through windows and dropping from rooftops.

The two-story annex of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity caught fire about 6:20 a.m., according to witnesses and officials on the scene. The house at 406 Summit St. near Fifth Street is across from ECU’s main campus.

Nine students lived in the home — called the back house because it sits behind the main fraternity building — said Keith Tingley, assistant director of Greek Life. Four overnight guests also escaped the blaze, he said.

David Perry, a neighbor who said he takes early-morning walks, helped several students escape by guiding them with his voice through the billowing smoke and allowing them to climb from a roof onto his shoulders, he said. He saw one student jump to a car, he said.

“I asked him if he was OK, and he said, 'Yeah, I’m OK. At least I’m alive,’” said Perry, a J.H. Rose High School substitute teacher.

Perry said he saw the fire on the porch at about 6:20 a.m. It had not spread to other parts of the house, but the alarm had roused residents living across the street who called 911 when they saw the flames. Greenville Fire-Rescue units began arriving within minutes.

One student suffered a second-degree burn on his knee and was transported by a Greenville EMS unit for treatment at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, officials said. The rest were uninjured.

The students lost all their possessions, including books and computers, officials said. At least two cars parked outside the building were badly damaged.

One student fretted about a dog left inside, Perry said. The dog was later confirmed dead by fire officials.

Greenville firefighters said the fire was extinguished at 10:30 a.m. and they began working inside the house, checking for hot spots and investigating for a cause of the fire and its point of origin, Battalion Chief Doug Branch said. A cause had not been determined by afternoon.

East Carolina University counselors were with students in the main fraternity building, assessing their emotional condition and offering comfort and assurance to them and family members, many who came to the campus, said Lynn Roeder, dean of students .

“The biggest concern now is their emotional state, Roeder said.

Red Cross personnel assessed the students’ losses and began the process, with university staff, of finding housing, clothing, computers and school supplies for them.

Fraternity president Ryan Harris said he had no knowledge of the fire’s cause or point of origin. He spoke about his brothers’ feelings after the fire.

“Right now, everybody is in shock. I think it will take some time for them to absorb everything. We’ll take it all one step at a time,” Harris said.

The students were relieved they were all OK, he said. The arrival of parents and family members boosted their spirits.

“We want to thank the university and the entire Greek family who have given us all their support. It’s more than we expected, and we owe them all a lot,” Harris said.

Fire alarms hard-wired into ECU and Greenville safety systems alerted students and emergency responders. The alarm went off at 6:23 a.m. and the first firefighters arrived at 6:27 a.m., officials said.

The house did not have sprinklers. Two escape rope-ladders were present in the upper floor but neither was used, officials said. Each room had a designated escape route. Some students chose not to use the exits, Tingley said.

Ryan Banach, 21, a sophomore, lives across the street from the home. He woke about 6:20 a.m. and saw red light through his window, he said.

He said he felt heat through the window and “saw nothing but flames.”

Fire blazed through first- and second-floor windows in the front and on the side of the annex house, he said.

Fraternity members stood outside the home and watched as it burned, he said.

Students and bystanders impeded firefighters, said Eric Griffin, battalion chief with Greenville Fire-Rescue.

When students got out of the building, they tried to put out the fire with trash cans full of water. Some wanted to go back into the house to check on friends, rescue pets, retrieve property and vehicles, he said.

“Crowd control was a big problem. It slowed us down,” Griffin said.

Greenville Utilities workers needed people to move away so they could kill power and cut lines to allow firefighters to move in with ladders, Griffin said.

After several requests made to students to move away from the fire area, police had to threaten bystanders with arrest to get them to move, Battalion Chief Branch said. No arrests were made.

No fire hydrants were in close proximity to the house, adding to difficulties, Griffin said.

Five engines and a ladder truck were brought in to assist in bringing water and personnel to fight the fire, he said.

The house was a total loss, Branch said.

Patrick Sebastian, InterFraternity Council President, praised the campus Greek community for its safety program.

“Although this is certainly a tragedy that these men will never forget, it is also a testament to the East Carolina Greek community’s preparedness for fires and other unforeseen tragic events. There is no doubt that these fraternity men handled an extremely difficult situation as well as anybody could have asked,” Sebastian said.

Campus and Fire-Rescue officials were scheduled to meet today to discuss fire inspections and safety drills that take place each February at fraternities and sororities, Tingley said.

The meeting had been scheduled prior to today’s fire. The last official fire drill at Sigma Phi Epsilon was in February 2008.

Sprinklers are not mandated at Greek houses, Tingley said, but hard-wired fire alarms are required and checked by campus officials annually.

“We also require that one exit from each room is kept clear and marked,” he said. “Fraternal organization national policy requires an annual fire drill as well. The students knew what to do and got out safely because of that.”

ECU will require all fraternities and sororities to have sprinklers by 2013 or the organization will not be recognized.

Installation of sprinklers in campus-based housing not already equipped the systems began last summer in three residence halls, and the project is expected to be completed in 2012, said Kemal Atkins, vice-provost for student affairs. All new buildings are required to have sprinkler systems built in, he said.