Fire believed accidental, town officials say

The group of college friends spent much of the late-season weekend on the deck of a beach house in North Carolina, overlooking a canal.

The deck was where they talked, listened to music and danced late into the night. But investigators fear the deck also marked the starting point of a fast-moving fire that killed the seven S.C. students and injured six more.

Six of the dead were students at USC; one was from Clemson. The group included high school pals from Greenville who went off to college together — some becoming Delta Delta Delta sorority sisters and some, Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity brothers.

Debbie Smith, mayor of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., said officials ruled out a chimenea — a free-standing outdoor fireplace — below a second-floor deck, as a possible cause of the fire.

Smith said investigators told her the fire was likely accidental and started on or near the deck, which faced a canal on the west side of the house.

USC vice president for student affairs Dennis Pruitt said it “might be a month” before N.C. investigators officially release a cause of the blaze.

Built in 2000, the six-bedroom, 2,533 square-foot house had been constructed mostly of wood and sat on stilts, according to Brunswick County property records. The exterior was sheathed with vinyl siding and the home had seven fireplaces.

Fire Chief Robert Yoho said the house was a private dwelling, not a rental cottage, and had the required smoke alarms in bedrooms and a nearby hallway. It lacked a sprinkler system, which was not required.

“I’m sure it was all up to code,” he said. “That house slept 13, and that’s how many were there.”

Names of the victims spread quickly across the Internet, mostly on Facebook and other social Web sites. But neither N.C. investigators nor the university would confirm the names, even though USC President Andrew Sorensen made calls to each victim’s family offering condolences and support.

“We are not the releasing authority,” USC spokesman Russ McKinney said. “That would be officials in North Carolina.”

Sharon Artis, a case manager with the N.C. Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, told The State the bodies arrived at the Chapel Hill facility throughout the day Monday. But Artis said the office will not release the victims’ names until each is identified through dental records and other means, which might take “two or three days.”

The victims, according to numerous sources, are:

• Justin Anderson, 19. USC sophomore; member of the SAE fraternity; graduate of J.L. Mann Academy in Greenville

• Travis Cale, 20. USC sophomore; member of SAE fraternity; graduate of J.L. Mann Academy

• Lauren Mahon, 18. USC freshman; member of Delta Delta Delta sorority; graduate of Hillcrest High School in Simpsonville

• Cassidy Pendley, 18. Freshman chemical engineering major at USC’s College of Engineering and Computing; member of Delta Delta Delta sorority; graduate of Fort Dorchester High School in North Charleston; her father lives in Chapin.

• William Rhea, 18. USC freshman; graduate of Trinity Collegiate School in Darlington

• Allison Walden, 19. Exercise science major at USC’s Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health; sophomore; member of Delta Delta Delta sorority; graduate of Chagrin Falls High School outside Cleveland, Ohio

• Emily Yelton. Sophomore at Clemson University; member of Delta Zeta sorority; graduate of J.L. Mann Academy.

Although several of the students were members of the SAE fraternity and Tri-Delta sorority, the gathering was not an official event of either Greek organization, Pruitt said.

The beach house’s owner, whose daughter was injured in the fire, said Monday his family was “numb, shocked and confused.”

“There are no words to describe what we’ve been going through,” said a distraught Chip Auman, who declined to take questions Monday night while speaking to a reporter at a hospital in Hartsville. “We are living a nightmare.”

Auman said daughter Katherine, 18, was admitted to the hospital there Monday because of complications from smoke inhalation. He said her condition was stable but guarded.

Another father, Terry Walden, whose daughter, Allison, didn’t escape the fire, thought carbon monoxide overcame most of the students as they slept.

That’s although his daughter’s roommate, Fallon Sposato, one of the survivors, told him smoke alarms in the house went off, he said.

SOMBER CAMPUS

In Columbia, classes went on at USC’s downtown campus on Monday, but the mood was somber.

The Jabali Africa band played upbeat rhythms on the conga and guitar at the Russell House student center patio at lunchtime. No one danced.

At the other end of the center, students lined up by the hundreds for tickets to the Gamecocks’ Nov. 10 home football game against the Florida Gators. But there was little of the usual banter and horseplay in the line.

Co-eds in bright purple Tri-Delt T-shirts walked through the student center in groups, often arm-in-arm for support, many with tears in their eyes.

On the sidewalk in front of the student center, SAE members were handing out black ribbons in memory of the victims — the only outward sign of the tragedy besides lines of television satellite trucks and a crush of media.

“Everybody is just sort of talking about it in small groups and going about their business,” said grad student Alicia Erwin. “It helps keep your mind off of it.”

USC’s Pruitt said the administration had discussed canceling classes but decided against it.

“We’re a very large community of 28,000 (students),” he said. “The best thing for our students would be to have a period of normalcy.”

Pruitt said a decision on holding a larger, communitywide memorial service will be made later in the week.

The university will bow to the wishes of the victim’s friends and families, who have to endure private funerals and memorial services this week, he said.

“If the students want a memorial service, we will have one,” Pruitt said.

The university provided counselors and clergy to students in need of them, Pruitt said, and opened more lines in the campus’ counseling call center.

The national Delta Delta Delta sorority and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity also provided counseling support.

“It’s been an extremely difficult time for our chapter,” said USC Tri-Delt president Lauren Hodge of Sumter. “It means a lot to know that people are here for us at this time.”

Jay Laura of Greenville, USC’s SAE president and student body vice president, urged “everyone to pray for the families of the victims and those who were fortunate enough to survive.”

In Greenville, Megan Hickerson, a member of the county school board and parent of a J.L. Mann student, said grief counselors were at the school Monday.

“They (counselors) had talked with a few students and everything seemed to be OK considering the circumstances,” Hickerson said. “I think the media is the toughest thing right now.”

This is the second blow for J.L. Mann. Earlier this month, another graduate, Taylor Cothran, 18, died after he fell from his fifth-floor USC dorm room window.

Even without identification, many Greenville residents heard through the grapevine that the victims were locals.

“It’s just incredibly sad,” said Deanna Klump as she waited outside J.L. Mann Academy to pick her student up after school. “All of these accidents happening to students at this one school. Such a sad situation.”

In Simpsonville, more than 200 people gathered Monday night on the lawn of Oakview Elementary School for a prayer vigil for the seven victims.

A pastor from Brookwood Church led the brief service. He did not name any of the victims.

Some wore Delta Zeta and other sorority shirts or J.L. Mann letter jackets. They held hands and prayed, then hugged family members.

Emily Yelton’s twin sister, Meredith, attended but declined to comment.

Back in Greenville, as Findley Merritt, 17, jogged through Falls Park downtown, the tragedy rattled through her mind.

“It’s just one of these freak accidents. It brings you back to reality. When you’re young, you think you’re invincible. This proves it isn’t true.”

Staff writers Gina Smith and Paul Strelow, The Raleigh News and Observer and The Associated Press contributed.