I'm one of the brothers at the MUC chapter of Sigma Nu (Ryan Flemming, BI 1809), so maybe I can shed some light on things.
Where do I begin?
OK, first of all, it wasn't a trash-can fire. The trash can itself was sitting five or six feet from the side of the house. What we're all
assuming is that someone flicked a cigarette at an ashtray that was adjacent to the building, and it instead landed in some leaves that had collected behind the tray. Those caught fire, and then set the house up. However, the official report hasn't come out yet from the investigators so we're all still waiting.
In the meantime, the brothers have been housed in an empty dorm here on campus... fits us just about perfectly, although I have the only real single in the house (top pin for the win!). We're all safe, and the majority of us have next-to-no damage to our personal belongings. A few rooms were heavily damaged, however, by water, fallen insulation, and by the entrances made by the firefighters who, God bless 'em, worked like champions to get it under control as fast as they did.
The house itself sustained localized heavy fire damage to the roof, where the fire was burning for the longest (in the attic, which was sealed). The repairs are looking to cost about 175,000 dollars...
But seeing as how the house cost 1.6 million to build, I'm not too worried about that. The house insurance will cover it, and homeowners insurance is workign to take care of the people who did have damage to personal belongings.
All in all, the important thing is that no one was hurt and that we're all still together.