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.