House Fire

[Adam Bickle]

Hi guys,

I'm a member of Delta Sigma Phi at Western Illinois University. I don't know if you have heard (it made national news), but my house caught on fire after the Fall Semster. Only 5 people were still left in the house, one including my real little brother, and they all got out safely. The bad thing was it took the fire department too long to get there because our fire alarm that triggered the fire department was one of the first things to burn. Usually they would have been there in five minutes, if we had a false alarm. We lost everything!!! The house has to be totally rebuilt. My brother came out owning a pair of pants, a T-shirt, and a pair of socks. That's it! The reason why I'm writing you is INSURANCE!!!!! Our house insurance didn't cover personal belongings. My parents house insurance covered my brother. This was the case for most people, but NOT EVERYBODY. Some of our brothers weren't covered. Words of advice, ask at your next chapter meeting if your belongings are covered by the house. If not, then find out if your covered under your parents. If not, GET RENTERS INSURANCE!! I don't think it costs much. Of course, like every freak accident, we thought it could never happen to us. Hopefully, it won't happen to you, but it doesn't hurt to check. On a lighter note, there is a pretty cool website that you will enjoy. It is http://www.infohip.com. Please forward this message to all of your brothers and sisters. I'm on a mission to make every Greek aware of how to protect themselves in case this happens to them.

Thanks so much for listening,

Adam a.k.a. Snocky

P.S. I would like to thank Western Illinois University and Delta Sigma Phi Nationals for supporting us in this time of need.

[Billy Optimist]

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope everything turns out ok.

[shadokat]

Adam--

I am so sorry to hear about your house and people's belongings. I'm not here to preach or anything, but I learned one thing from my college years. We had a frat house burn to the ground the day before homecoming weekend and five people died in that fire. While we're all out educating on how to insure their belongings, we need to also make sure that our fraternity brothers and sorority sisters are living in safe housing that is equipped with the proper safety routes and fire alarms. Thankfully, the house your brother lived in was. For many GLO's, it's a different story.

Last year, another frat house burned down at our campus, killing three more students.

Make sure your members are living in safe places. It is a terrible experience to have to memorialize those in your greek community, and I've had to do it twice.

[AOX81]

Adam~

Sorry to hear about your house. Thanks for the information...I'll pass it on to greeks in my area.

We recently had a similar situation, the kitchen at the SAE house caught fire because I guess somebody left a stove on in the kitchen.

I hope things work out for you guys!!

Amy