Beach-house inferno kills 7 college students
OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. - An intense fire ravaged a beach house packed with college students early Sunday, killing seven and leaving little of the structure but its charred frame and the stilts on which it stood.
Six survivors were hospitalized and released. The cause was being investigated.
“There were three kids sitting on the ground screaming,” said newspaper deliverer Tim Burns, who called 911 after seeing a column of smoke rising from the house. “There was one guy hanging out the window, and he jumped in the canal. I know he got out because he was yelling for a girl to follow him.”
Burns said he didn’t know whether that girl was able to escape.
Officials at the University of South Carolina said six of the students who died were from the school in Columbia; the seventh attended Clemson University. The six who survived were also from USC. The private home was being used by the owner’s daughter and a group of her friends, Mayor Debbie Smith said.
Students will have access to counselors, residence-hall advisers and clergy members, USC President Andrew Sorensen said. Classes will be held today.
Dennis Pruitt, dean of students, said the fire appears to have affected two Greek organizations - the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Earlier in the day, a campus minister at the sorority house declined to comment, as did an adult who answered the door at the fraternity house. Messages left with the organization’s national headquarters were not immediately returned.
The fire struck sometime before 7 a.m. and burned completely through the first and second floors, leaving only part of the frame standing. The waterfront home - named “Changing Channels” - was built on stilts, forcing firefighters to climb a ladder onto the house’s deck to reach the first living floor. Smith said the house was a total loss.
“We ran down the street to get away,” said Nick Cain, a student at the University of North Carolina who was staying at a house about 100 feet away. “The ash and the smoke were coming down on us. We were just trying to get away.”
Cain was one of the dozens of college students who filled at least four houses within a block of the burned home. Neighbor Jeff Newsome said the students were going back and forth between the houses all weekend long.
“We didn’t have any big complaints,” Newsome said. “The lights were on all night. They were having a good time.”
Winds blowing flames over the water, and not toward any other residence on the packed row of vacation homes, kept the fire from spreading.
The intense heat kept Burns and others from attempting a rescue, although he said he had to keep several of those who escaped from trying.