Two SAMs die in fire near N.C. State
 

Two students die in fire near N.C. State University



The Associated Press

October 09, 2005



Future lab results and interviews will help investigators determine what started a fire that killed two North Carolina State University students in an off-campus apartment.
Fire investigators wrapped up their investigation inside the charred duplex by Saturday, but had not found the cause of Friday's blaze, Raleigh Fire Marshal Larry Stanford said.
The fire happened during fall break on the campus just blocks away. On Sunday, friends of the dead students slowly assembled an informal memorial by stacking up flowers and photos on an outside wall of the duplex.
"It just really saddens me," neighbor and N.C. State employee Millie Herget said Sunday.
The blaze killed Mark Brandon Davis, 22, of High Point, and Cody Pilkington, 19, of Grifton. Davis was a senior and Pilkington a sophomore. They were members of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.
Eight others, including seven residents of the duplex, fled as the building filled with smoke, soot and flame.
The fire apparently started next to a sofa in the ground-floor game room of one half of the duplex, Stanford said. Some of the fraternity's members gathered there Thursday night to play pool and watch the Wolfpack's football team beat Georgia Tech, said Elisabeth Condrone, a fraternity member's mother.
Flames never reached the second-floor bedrooms, but smoke from the blaze appear to have killed Davis and Pilkington before they could escape.
The house had smoke alarms but no sprinkler system, Stanford said. Raleigh requires landlords to equip rental homes with smoke alarms; tenants are responsible for keeping the alarms in working condition.

Their families are in my prayers. :(

how sad
:( :(

A lose of Life is never Right when so Young!:(

Autopsy: Alcohol Factor In N.C. State Frat Fire Death

POSTED: 11:50 am EST December 16, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. -- An autopsy shows that smoke and heat killed one of two North Carolina State University students who died in an apartment fire in October, but officials said alcohol also was a factor.

The state autopsy report on Brandon Davis doesn't say how drinking contributed to his death. But it noted that Davis died in a bathroom of a duplex near Oberlin Road. He was found on his back, partially in a bathtub.

The senior from High Point had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.11, just over the legal limit for motorists in North Carolina. A friend says Davis drank liquor shots at a nearby bar the night of the fatal fire.

The fire also killed sophomore Cody Pilkington of Grifton. Pilkington's autopsy found no alcohol in his body, and his friends and relatives have said he never drank or smoked.

The men's three-story rental duplex was home to eight members of the school's Sigma Alpha Mu, a small fraternity of engineering students.

Tragic is a word we use too often here. But this certainly is.

Recalling some of the fire traps I lived in while in college, I'm amazed this doesn't happen more often.

Add to that the lack of attention to safety details (candles, smoking, etc.) that many college students show, and off campus student housing can be trouble waiting to happen.

Be safe.

Beleive Me I can relate to the type of off campus housing!

My 2 roomies and I thought We lived in a Cock Apt. Narrow down stairs from the second floor!:eek:

I saved 3 guys, tow of them My Fellow BX Brothrs at the time in a College Pros. crapy Apt. building. The space heater went out and they were being gassed! Kicked the door in and drug them out.:)

They talk about Greek Housing!:confused: