Fire burns UGa senior
 

Student burned at frat
Incident involves alcohol, oil lamp

By Joe Johnson
joe.johnson@onlineathens.com


A 21-year-old University of Georgia student was severely burned early Tuesday during a UGA fraternity drinking ritual that went terribly awry, Athens-Clarke police said.


William Flynn Miller IV was engaged in a drinking rite inside the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house at 990 S. Milledge Ave. involving 190-proof grain alcohol and a lighted oil lantern at about 3:20 a.m. when his clothes burst into flame, severely burning his upper torso, according to police.

Jay Sammons, the fraternity's outgoing president, said in an interview he did not witness the incident because he was in his room at the time. He said a meeting was to be held Tuesday night to discuss what had happened.

He said Miller, a senior from Savannah majoring in forestry and known to friends as "Flynn," suffered second-degree burns over 20 percent of his body.

According to police, however, Miller had suffered third-degree burns to his upper torso and hands, but his injuries did not appear life-threatening.

Initially taken to Athens Regional Medical Center, Miller was later flown by helicopter to the Augusta Medical Center, where he was being treated in the hospital's burn center, a hospital official said.

Fraternity members interviewed at the scene shortly after the incident claimed the fire had not resulted from a hazing ritual, according to police.

"My understanding is they were having some type of activity that involved grain alcohol," police Capt. Mark Sizemore said.

Sammons said the accident occurred during "Senior Night," in which those preparing to graduate take turns addressing the fraternity, sharing remembrances of having belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

"Drinking's not required" as part of Senior Night, Sammons said.

"People bring beer and stuff, but as far as it being a rule, no one ever says you need to drink," he said.

Sizemore said despite the severity of his burns, Williams was conscious and able to speak with a detective who went to the Augusta hospital to interview him.

"We're following up to make sure nothing criminal in nature took place and to make sure these types of accidents don't happen again," he said.

According to interviews with fraternity members, the room in the frat house where the ritual was being performed was in darkness, save for the light from an "Aladdin style" oil lamp that sat atop a podium next to a bottle of Everclear, which is 95-percent pure grain alcohol, police said.

One 22-year-old fraternity member said he had been standing behind the podium as other members took turns drinking shots of the powerful liquor, according to police, and "he said someone came from his left and was taking a shot or pouring, and Mr. Miller came from the right. The frat member said somehow the alcohol ignited and Mr. Miller was surrounded by a ball of fire."

Fellow fraternity members put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, police said.

According to one statement, the fraternity members "were not hazing," as "everyone had been initiated a couple of weeks ago," according to police.

When officers arrived on the scene, the floor of the frat house was littered with cans and bottles of beer, folding chairs were scattered about and the odor of burned hair lingered in the air.

Miller was found on the floor, and although conscious, skin was hanging off his fingers, chest, stomach, side and back, police said.

"Mr. Miller said they were drinking and had been horsing around, and somehow - while next to an open flame from a lamp - the liquor ignited and caught him on fire," according to a police report.

One source knowledgeable about the incident, who asked to not be identified, said that Lambda Chi Alpha traditionally engages in a drinking ritual while playing the Steppenwolf rock song "Magic Carpet Ride," which makes mention of Aladdin's lamp.

The lyrics go, in part:

"Last night I held Aladdin's lamp

And so I wished that I could stay

Before the thing could answer me

Well, someone came and took the lamp away

I looked around, a lousy candle's all I found."

Sammons denied his fraternity engages in such a rite.

UGA spokesman Tom Jackson said the university was investigating the incident.

"Obviously, our student affairs people were called to the scene early this morning, and our first concern is for the well being of Flynn," Jackson said. "Clearly, our student affairs officials will get to the bottom of this and take any action which is appropriate."

Tuesday morning's accident marked the second time in recent years that Lambda Chi Alpha has been in the news as the result of an alcohol-related tragedy.

In April 2003, 19-year-old Travis F. Starr of Martinez died several days after falling from a pickup truck while being driven home from a night of drinking in downtown Athens bars. Fellow Lambda Chi member Brett Steele, who was driving the truck, was charged with first-degree homicide by vehicle, a felony, and in March a Clarke County Superior Court jury convicted him of misdemeanor charges of second-degree vehicular homicide.

Steele was sentenced to 30 days in jail, to be followed by one year on probation, but the sentence has been stayed because an appeal is still pending.

Also in 2003, Phi Kappa Psi member Erik Robert Zimmerman, 20, was charged with animal cruelty for shooting a raccoon on his fraternity house's property on Dec. 12. Although not charged, one other fraternity member skinned the dead animal, and a third cooked and ate a piece of the animal's flesh.

Zimmerman, who has undergone a battery of psychological testing, is still awaiting trial in Clarke County State Court.

Three years before that, in March 2000, 20-year-old Ben F. Grantham III, a member of the UGA chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, died during a hazing incident that ended in a fatal wreck in Oconee County.

Handcuffed and blindfolded in the cargo hold of a sport-utility vehicle, Grantham died when the SUV crashed at high speed on Elder Mill Road.

As a result of the tragedy, Alpha Tau Omega voluntarily disbanded, and four former members pleaded guilty to charges ranging from vehicular homicide to involuntary manslaughter, receiving sentences ranging from five years on probation to 100 hours of community service.

Seven months later, UGA lodged university hazing complaints against five fraternity members found conducting a secret induction ritual on Athens roadways after police found three fraternity members riding in an SUV with two blindfolded fraternity members in the cargo hold. Three of the men were members of Kappa Alpha fraternity, one belonged to Sigma Chi and one was a Lambda Chi Alpha member.



Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Wednesday, December 1, 2004

hoosier, this is all news to me.

I appreciate the update, but not all of the side effects of what supposedly was done along with all of the other Fraternitys that you listed.

I have been through our Ritual and have seen it many times and I can say there is a lot of crap on that link!

MCR is not used in Ritual but at festive occasions only, Our Ritual is plainly explained to us only and had better be followed to the letter.

I will leave this up a bit and if my fellow Mod wants to delete this I have no problem with that. If not deleted in by Him then I will delete it in a timely manner.

OK, I take back my previous post, the UGa chapter could be f ed if this story is closer to the truth.

[deleted]

Not neccesary to be brought up.

Should wait until a full investigation.

My apologies.

I think there is alot more to this story than what was reported.

I've been around grain alcohol on many occasions and I know how dangerous it can be, both in the drinking and fire sense.

I have some friends, members of other fraternities, that used to do tricks with it: they would hold it in their mouths then spit it out at an open lighter and a 5 foot flame would shoot out as it burned the alcohol.

Another one is putting some on your hand and then igniting it, the alcohol catches on fire but your hand isn't burnt.

In order for you to catch fire, you really have to be soaked in it. It usually burns out pretty quickly. For his clothes to catch fire, there is a good possibility that he was drinking quite a bit of it and must have spilled alot onto himself. My first concern is that no one should be drinking so much of it in such an irresponsible manner that it spills all over. As I said before, 1 shot of grain is equal to at least 5 of vodka.

What I'm really curious about is the blood alcohol content of Brother Flynn and all the others involved.

1st of all, they were stupid to be drinking grain alcohol in excess near an open flame.

2nd of all they should have had a fire extinguisher nearby whenever there is any type of fire.

3rd of all they were stupid in partaking in the whole activity.

*4th of all there should ALWAYS be a designated SOBER member at EVERY event.

*This rule is especially important. Sometimes you need a sober person to step in before things get out of control.

If their house is the typical old fashioned rickity frat house that my dear old Gamma Zeta was, they're lucky more people didn't get hurt. Imagine if he knocked over a few bottles while he was on fire and the fire spread! The house, if it is old like I said above, probably would have went up like nothing! Imagine the guys in their rooms unaware of the situation! Fire is a huge hazard for any fraternity.

*sorry for the double post, darn button got screwed up. :(

Is this done being discussed on this thread?

Drop it and get to another thread! This will be deleted very soon!

Thank you for your indulgence!

12 hrs should about cover it.

Tom,

I don't see why this thread needs to be deleted. This should prove a chance for brothers to discuss such instances and get the views of other brothers on them. Is that not what this forum is for? This thread could prove to be a useful Risk Management tool for some due to the discussion about it. Therefore, I pose these questions to produce a less confrontational thread:

How do you feel about this incident?

Are there instances where such an act has occurred, on a lesser level, and how was it handled?

How could this act have been stopped from occurring, or at least curtailed?

In ZAX,

Tim Hill

Tim Point well taken.

Just wondered though as an open forum if a good place to discuss this.

Lets see where it goes.

First and foremost, I hope this brother is ok and I think it will be interesting how IHQ handles this, very interesting. We have had some of our larger chapters get in trouble recently for hazing and dangerous incidents such as this. A lot of major fraternity's are dealing with the same issues, I will not name any names.

I visited this chapter less than two months ago for the UT-UGA game and yes I would say they like to party but I would also say they are EXTREMELY well respected at this univeristy and extremely well represented on campus. This is one of the best fraternity's at one of the most prestigious greek schools in the country. You can tell by their massive alumni support, their house and asking people around Athens what they think of Lambda Chi Alpha, and they say good things. If you are not very familiar with our chapters in the south everyone knows about the Lambda Chi chapter at UGA but some events recently are starting to ruin their name.

Tom has a point to want to delete this thread but I think it should be kept up so everyone finds out what happens to this chapter because I believe it is important, especially to a lot of brothers/Lambda Chi Alpha chapters in the south. Threads don't need to contain certain things and people don't need to talk about certain things if you know what I mean.

One negative thing I have to say is their chapter has not attending General Assembly in quite awhile and have not been on the best terms with IHQ. This could play a role in whatever penality they receive from IHQ, if they find them guilty of doing something wrong. I know a lot about this chapter and really do not want to see anything bad happen but some MAJOR changes have to made. We should not be oblivious to some of the things they do.

Brother Ryan, I am sure All of us are concerned about this Brother as We should be.

Is there a double standard with IHQ? Of course there is. We all as an INT. want to be represented on Major Campi.

But, if there is a problem, then there Has to be A Heavy Decission made of improprities. But, the facts must be duely checked first.

What you have relayed is important from the point of someone who has been there first hand.

I did not remember until you posted this that they were not in attendence at G A!. They should have been reamed for that as I am sure they could afford to send one Member since it was paid for by Us, You Know, The Active and Alum Members of LXA!

What is fantastic, ask Jono about how many Brothers they Had From FIT, Fl. a Tech school, not a large U!

Ok, class, what can we learn here?
 

Obviously, our prayers are with the brother who was injured in this incident and all the brothers at UGA.

Now, however, I want to comment on the other issues this raises.

First, the issue of removing this thread. My thoughts are: If it's private keep it private. I don't believe we shoud air our dirty underwear in public. That being said, once somebody else (the press) runs our shorts up the flagpole, it behooves us to learn what we can from the incident. In other words, once it's public knowledge, what harm can be done by discussing it?

I see this incident as an object lesson for all of us, and for other greeks as well. The lesson is this: As brothers of Lambda Chi Alpha, everything we we do is a reflection on each of our brothers, each of our Zetas, and our General Fraternity. This is true of all of us, but especially of undergraduates and brothers at a chapter house.

I will mention the UGA incident only because it is the topic at hand. I can think of plenty of others that would illustrate my point just as well. This incident started out as a couple of guys sitting down to get drunk. Because they're members of a fraternity and one of them got hurt, it has become the "Lambda Chi Drinking Ritual." If a group of them had been cleaning the house and a brother had been overcome by fumes from the cleaning products, would the papers call it the "Lambda Chi Cleaning Ritual?" I don't think so. The same thing could have happened a any GDI apartment, and it would be called a "freak accident."

And the reason is simple. People have an engrained notion of what fraternities are and they evaluate the things they hear about fraternities by relating them to that notion.

I don't mean to suggest that we bow to public opinion. If the question is one of right or wrong, choose to do right. However, if the question is not a moral one, I would admonish all of us, myself included, to think before we act. Is what I'm about to do a good idea? What could go wrong? Is it worth the risk? How can I minimize the risk? If something does go awry, how will the public perceive me? My chapter? The Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity as a whole?

I doubt that any of us can change the public's perception of the fraternity system, but if we use our heads, we can avoid perpetuating it.

In "I'm off my soap box now" ZAX,
Ottor

Logic Problem
 

Logic Problem:

LXA's ritual written 1913.
Magic Carpet Ride written 1960's (or was it early 70's??
dunno, before my time!)

MCR part of LXA's ritual?? Mason must have been more
clairvoyant (sp?) than we all thought!!

;)