Seven Dead in Sunday Blaze

Oct 29, 11:47 AM

Current Headlines: By Mike Cherney, Jonathan Tressler, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Oct. 29--Stephanie Wilkins remembers joking with a group of college students she had just met in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., on Saturday night.

By Sunday morning, more than half of the students she had met were dead -- killed in an early morning fire that gutted the Scotland Street beach home where they were staying. Six students who died were from the University of South Carolina and one was from Clemson University. Another six USC students were injured, treated at and released from Brunswick Community Hospital.

"We both had suffered a pretty bad football loss, so we were laughing about that," said Wilkins, a student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who was staying near the USC students. "It was just a bunch of people getting to know each other."

The USC students were from the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, but their trip to Ocean Isle Beach was not an official social or university outing, just a weekend away, said Dennis Pruitt, the university's vice president for student affairs.

"These are young people in the prime of their life. They had so much to look forward to, and it's just profoundly tragic" said University of South Carolina President Andrew Sorensen.

"I can't imagine what the families are going through, what the school community is going through," said Melanie Long, who operates a fishing pier about a quarter mile from the house. "It's probably the worst thing I've heard of in the last while."

The fire began before 7 a.m. and burned through the first and second floors, leaving only part of the home's frame standing. Officials do not yet know the cause or the origin, though Mayor Debbie Smith said there's no reason to suspect foul play. The waterfront home was built on stilts, forcing firefighters to climb a ladder on the house's deck to reach the first living floor.

"The house is standing, but it's totally gutted," said Nick Cain, another student from UNC who was staying near the burned home. "We ran down the street to get away. The ash and the smoke were coming down on us. We were just trying to get away."

Smith said one of the students staying in the house was the homeowner's daughter. Smith refused to release the name of the person who owns the home, but said the owner lives in Hartsville, S.C.

"Nothing like this has ever happened to us," Smith said. "We're devastated."

At least two students had to jump from the burning structure to escape the fire, said Tim Burns, a newspaper carrier for The Sun News who said he was the first one to call 911. One student jumped into a canal next to the house.

"There were three kids sitting on the ground screaming," Burns said. "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 if that girl escaped.

"It was smoke to start with, then the fire came through the roof," said Will Long, who runs the fishing pier with his wife, Melanie, and was fishing Sunday morning when he saw the home go up in flames. "I called 911 and they said help was already on the way."

Rick Wylie of Greenville, S.C., said his son, Tripp, jumped from the burning home. Wylie said some of the people in the house had been friends since high school.

"He's in shock," Wylie said of his son. "It's just an incomprehensible thing for these parents."

Hunter Schultz, a USC freshman from Florence, said he knew at least two people who were staying at the beach house because he attended West Florence High School with them.

"They were good kids," Schultz said. "They didn't do anything bad. They did their school work. They were social."

Pruitt said university officials learned about the fire from police in Ocean Isle Beach. Investigators noticed cars parked in the driveway with Tri-Delt stickers on them, he said.

University officials then called the sorority to confirm that some of their members had gone to the beach in North Carolina for the weekend.

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 blew the flames over the water, and not toward any of the other residences on the tightly packed row of vacation homes, a fact that kept the fire from spreading. The intense heat kept Burns and others from attempting a rescue, although he said he had to fight to keep several of those who escaped from trying. When he approached the front door, he said, it was much too hot to open.

"When I was going up to the entry way, you could hear the windows above me explode," Burns said. "When I knew the flames had taken over, I don't think I've ever felt as helpless in my life."

Smith, the mayor, said accommodations had been found for family members at local hotels. In the hours after the fire, family members gathered at a small chapel across the street from the town hall. They refused to speak with reporters.

"It's got to be horrible for those people," said Robbie Stephens, the chaplain for Ocean Isle Beach's fire department, outside the chapel. "Everywhere I went, it's been all about this."

Authorities erected a blue tarp to block the view of the fire scene, but neighbor Bob Alexander said he saw investigators removing bodies from the home early Sunday afternoon. Family members of some victims who gathered in a chapel across the street from the town hall declined to speak with reporters. Smith said they had left by the evening.

"It's terrible to see somebody's children come out of that house this way," Alexander said.

The victims' bodies will be taken to the N.C. medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill, and officials said it would be several days before their identities are officially released.

Smith said the home had working smoke detectors, but did not have sprinklers.

Firefighters from Ocean Isle Beach's volunteer department arrived at the home a few minutes after the first 911 call was received. Firefighters from Sunset Beach, Shallotte Point, Calabash and Grissettown Long and Brunswick County EMS assisted them, according to a press release from the town.

Tim Rodriguez, a resident of Ocean Isle Beach and an employee at The Sun News, said he arrived at the burning home about the same time as the firefighters.

"Then they took more time trying to find a key to open the fire hydrant. They didn't start pouring water on it for minutes after that."

Residents said they were lucky the fire did not spread to other homes, which stand close together. Randy Thompson, the director of emergency services for Brunswick County, said firefighters' efforts helped save nearby structures.

"I could see the black smoke and flames," said Lundee Nance, who lives near the burned home and was walking her dog about 7 a.m. Sunday. "I could hear the windows popping."

By early Sunday afternoon, authorities had confirmed six students had been killed. A student who was initially listed as missing was confirmed dead later in the day. Authorities did not identify any of the students Sunday.

Information about the fire hit USC's main campus at Columbia early in the day, said Jerry Brewer, the associate vice president for student affairs.

Long before law enforcement officers or University of South Carolina officials made public statements, the story of the tragic house fire in Ocean Isle Beach began unfolding -- not always accurately -- on message boards and social networking sites, post by post.

A few names of those who were killed; the name of a high school where some of the victims might have graduated from; details of a harrowing escape from a third floor window; prayers and condolences offered.

"How perfectly horrible! God bless those students, their families and friends," read one post at thestate.com.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, someone posted on a television station's community messaging site that nine people died in the fire.

On the social networking site facebook.com, friends posted messages of encouragement to one survivor on his page Sunday evening. Though the general public could not see the postings or post to the page, hundreds of people in the young man's network of friends could. On other sites people asked pointed questions about details of the tragedy. Others responded kindly and not so kindly to such requests, but in most cases with information.

Brewer said the university had counselors available for students and family members. Classes will not be canceled today, according to a news release. But that doesn't mean everyone will have stopped thinking about the tragedy.

"In the college environment, everybody is so full of life," said Brewer, who was in Ocean Isle Beach to meet with local officials. "Death and dying is the last thing they think about. We're going to have a lot of healing to do."

By Mike Cherney, Jonathan Tressler and Jason M. Rodriguez. Staff writer Lisa Fleisher, McClatchy Newspapers and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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