By NATE JENKINS
The Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. - Fire broke out in a fraternity house early Friday, killing one student and leaving three others in critical conditions, officials said.
The blaze started around 4 a.m. in a second-story room at the Phi Kappa Tau house at Nebraska Wesleyan University, said Lincoln Fire Chief Dan Wright. At least 39 people were inside at the time.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Three students who had been in the house when the fire broke out said they couldn’t recall hearing an alarm, but Wright said somebody had pulled it.
The three, who declined to give their names citing an agreement among the fraternity brothers, described a frantic scene inside the house. At least two students jumped out windows and others pulled shirts over their mouths as they tried to get everyone else out, they said.
“There was a lot of damage done,” University spokeswoman Sara Olson said. “It’ll be a while before anyone can move back in.”
Olson said all four students were members of Phi Kappa Tau. She identified two of the hospitalized students as David Spittler, 20, of Elkhorn and Travis Mann, 22, of Beatrice. Both suffered smoke inhalation and were in critical but stable condition, Olson said.
The identities of the student who died and the other injured student were not immediately released.
“We are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death of one of our students,” the university said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are also with three other students who are currently being treated at a local hospital.”
Friday morning, crying students hugged each other outside the red brick house, where black burn marks spread up from a second-floor window. The house did not have a sprinkler system, Wright said.
Officials plan to move the Phi Kappa Tau survivors in a vacant section of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house on campus until their fraternity house is inhabitable again, Olson said.
Nebraska Wesleyan, a Methodist Church-affiliated liberal arts college, has about 1,800 students.