What a bad month we've had. Full story at http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&id=20071029/472568d0_3421_1334520071029913476938

Monday, October 29, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. - All that was left Monday of a home where college students had gathered to enjoy fleeting beach weather was a charred shell, leaving family and friends to question how a weekend of fun turned into a fire that killed seven.

The home erupted into a storm of fire and smoke Sunday morning in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. Six of the seven students killed attended the University of South Carolina; the other attended Clemson University. Six other South Carolina students in the house survived.

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

The fire struck sometime before 7 a.m. and burned completely through the first and second floors, leaving only part of the frame standing. The waterfront home - named "Changing Channels" - was built on stilts, forcing firefighters to climb a ladder onto the house's deck to reach the first living floor.

One witness described seeing three students sitting on the ground screaming as the home burned, and another jumping from a window into a waterway.

The intense heat kept a newspaper deliveryman, Tim Burns, and others from attempting a rescue. When he approached the front door, he said, it was too hot to open. Above him, he heard windows begin to explode.

"When I knew the flames had taken over, I don't think I've ever felt as helpless in my life," Burns said.

The burned home sits on one of a series of peninsulas, all tightly packed with homes, that are about two blocks from the beach and connect by canals. Several houses near the one that burned were filled with college students. Police tape cordoned off three vehicles in the driveway Monday. A fourth vehicle, burned out, was parked beneath the home.

Officials said the group was staying at a house owned by the parents of one of the students. Many were friends from the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, said Dennis Pruitt, the school's dean of students. The father of one survivor said several had gone to high school together in Greenville.

The group had decided to go to the beach to enjoy some of the last good weather, Amanda Palacio, a roommate of a person at the home, told ABC's "Good Morning America."

"They were just, you know, going out to have a good time and enjoy the beach, especially before it got cold," Palacio said Monday.

No cause for the blaze had been determined.

As news of the fire spread around the South Carolina campus, so did rumors of the victims' identities. Officials said identifications might not be made publicly until Wednesday, but that grief counselors would be available for the 27,000 students here when classes resume Monday.

South Carolina freshman J.P. Shorter said he and was talking with friends about the fire and that there were all kinds of rumors about what happened. "Some people I know are in Delta Delta Delta," said Shorter, 18, of Charleston. "I feel bad."

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

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