Lincoln authorities say it appears the fraternity house blaze was unintentional, but the cause remains unknown
By Paul Hammel and Matthew Hansen
Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska)
Copyright 2006 The Omaha World-Herald Company
LINCOLN, Neb. — It’s doubtful that a laptop computer battery started the deadly fire at a Nebraska Wesleyan University fraternity house last week, Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said Wednesday.
“We have no reason to believe (the laptop) was the source of ignition,” said Casady, whose department is coordinating the fire investigation. “We don’t know the source of ignition right now.”
Investigators say they think the blaze started in the bedroom of the student who died in the fire, but Casady said the laptop’s location in that bedroom suggested it was not the fire source.
The chief said dozens of people, including about 30 on the morning of the fire, have been interviewed by fire and police investigators.
The fire killed Ryan Stewart, a 19-year-old sophomore from Ord, Neb., and critically injured three other members of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
Two of the injured students have been released from the hospital.
Travis Mann, a senior from Beatrice, was released Wednesday from St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center. Aaron McGuire, a sophomore from Sioux Falls, S.D., left that hospital Tuesday.
The condition of David Spittler, a junior from Elkhorn, Neb., was upgraded Wednesday from critical to serious.
Speculation on the cause of the fraternity house fire last Friday has centered on whether it was related to initiation rites for new fraternity members.
Earlier this week, Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey said that a laptop found in Stewart’s room would be tested as a possible cause of the fire, but that the cause was still unclear.
Faulty batteries in laptop computers have been blamed in a number of fires and prompted a recall of the batteries.
The laptop will be tested in hopes of ruling it out completely as a potential fire source, said Bill Moody, chief fire inspector for the City of Lincoln.
The State Fire Marshal’s Office has said it does not appear that the fire was set intentionally.
Both Moody and Casady declined to address talk that fireworks and cigars were employed as part of the fraternity’s initiation rites. Smoking and the burning of candles are banned in the building, officials have said.
Moody said it may take up to two weeks before the investigation is completed.
He said the Phi Kappa Tau house passed a fire code inspection in September, but he did not know if the house was in compliance at the time of the fire.
Moody declined to comment on why black plastic had covered some of the fraternity windows and whether that was associated with the initiation rites, which often employ complete darkness.
Fraternity members have said alcohol was consumed the night of the fire, which was detected about 4 a.m., only an hour after initiation ceremonies at the house had concluded.
Members have also said they do not think that there was any link between the ceremonies and the fire, because the initiation events took place on the first floor of the 2 1/2-story brick house and the fire was on the second floor.
Alcohol use is a common thread in fatal, campus-related fires, according to the Center for Campus Fire Safety, a national clearinghouse on such blazes. Nine people have died in fraternity or sorority fires since 2000, according to that group.
Fraternity members who are of legal drinking age are allowed to consume alcohol at the Phi Kappa Tau house, which is privately owned and across the street from the Nebraska Wesleyan campus.
Neighbors have said the house was a frequent site for parties and that they saw partygoers drinking in the backyard frequently.
Fraternity member Tim Klipp, a junior, said the days have passed when Phi Kappa Tau hosted a party every weekend and repeatedly faced probation, or the threat of probation, from university leaders.
In 2003 the fraternity’s president and vice president were cited for maintaining a disorderly house after police shut down an out-of-control party at the fraternity house.
But Klipp said Phi Kappa Tau posted the highest grade-point average of Wesleyan’s four fraternities in the fall semester of 2005, and narrowly missed that ranking again in the spring semester.
“It’s completely been turned around,’' he said of the fraternity’s rowdy reputation.
Klipp said he heard no fireworks shot off inside or outside the fraternity either on Thursday night or Friday morning. He said he left the house about 15 minutes before the fire started.
He declined to comment when asked if fraternity members were smoking cigars in the house, but he said he had never seen Stewart smoke.
Funeral services for Stewart will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Ord.
One fraternity member, Miles Powers, a freshman from York, Neb., said members plan to attend the services and have offered to help Stewart’s family with chores at their rural feedlot on Friday and Saturday.
“This has brought us all closer together,” Powers said. “We lost a brother, and we’ve got to get through this.”
Stewart’s survivors include his parents, James and Mary Ann Stewart of Ord; sister, Jennifer Lavicky of Germantown, Wis.; and numerous aunts and uncles.