Udec Corporation

Historical Moment: Ohio Fraternity House Fire

A fire started by a cigarette thought to have been extinguished, re-ignited during the night, damaging a fraternity house and killing a 19-year old resident.

A campus security officer responding to an early morning disturbance call at a nearby fraternity house notice the smoke coming from a second floor window. He reported the fire to his dispatch center, which notified the fire department.

The guard entered the smoky building, heard the fire alarms operating, and started the evacuation of the students, who heard the alarms, but were not leaving the building.

Three minutes later the fire department arrived, to find smoke and flames coming from the rear of the building. Assured by the fraternity staff that everyone had been evacuated, the firefighters started the battling of the flames. The attack crew reported severe heat and smoke as low as 6+ inches from the floor as they advanced to the origin of the fire, and knocked down the blaze.

A primary search of the fire floor revealed one student dead in a bathroom a few feet from an enclosed exit stairwell.

The fire’s origin was in a room in the middle of the second floor, two rooms away from the one in which the student who died was sleeping. Earlier that night in the first room, the residents had extinguished a small fire at one end of the couch, which was caused by careless smoking.

An hour and a half later, the room’s resident woke to find the fire had re-ignited. He left his room and returned with a fire extinguisher, which didn’t work. Leaving his room again, he left the door open.

The student who was two rooms away tried to escape to the nearby stairwell, but succumbed to the heavy smoke. His elevated blood alcohol level was 0.15, which investigators believed played a role in his death.

The building had passed previous inspections, meeting all safety requirements for fast evacuation.

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