Smoking may have caused Ocean Isle Beach fire

The fire that killed seven South Carolina college students at Ocean Isle Beach on Sunday morning started on the deck of the house -- possibly ignited by "discarded smoking materials" -- but investigators said Friday they may never know the exact cause.

Fire investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gave Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith a preliminary report of their findings Friday afternoon. Smith read the two-page report at a brief news conference.

Extensive damage to the back deck of the house made it impossible to determine what ignited the blaze. However, the report said, investigators had studied the house, fire photos and videos, and witness statements.

"Based on the investigation, agents could not rule out improperly discarded smoking materials as a possible cause of the fire," the report said.

The mayor said the SBI had ruled out a gas grill and a chiminea, an outdoor fireplace, as possible causes. Investigators found no evidence the fire was intentionally set.

Cigarettes have been blamed for a number of deadly fires involving college students in North Carolina.

A fire at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house that killed five UNC-Chapel Hill students in 1996 was blamed on a cigarette tossed into a trash can.

Two East Carolina University students died in 2003 when smoking material, thought to be a cigarette, fell onto a couch and smoldered before setting their second-floor Greenville apartment on fire.

In 2005, two N.C. State University students died in an off-campus duplex rented by their fraternity when a cigarette left behind after a party set a couch on fire.

Those killed in the Ocean Isle Beach fire were Cassidy Fae Pendley, 18; Lauren Astrid Kristiana Mahon, 18; Justin Michael Anderson, 19; Travis Lane Cale, 19; Allison Walden, 19; William Rhea, 18; and Emily Lauren Yelton, 19. Yelton attended Clemson University; the others were students at the University of South Carolina.

Six other students staying at the house escaped with injuries.

Many of the students were members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority, and some had attended high school together in Greenville, S.C. The house belonged to the family of one of the young women in the group.

Friday's report said smoke alarms in the five-bedroom house had activated during the fire, which started before 7 a.m. The house had no sprinkler system and was not required to under state law.

Investigators are still trying to determine why the fire spread so quickly. A final report may not be ready for several weeks, agents said.

All the victims were upstairs in the house, and preliminary autopsy reports indicate all died of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. Toxicology reports have not been completed.

The students had spent the weekend watching football and visiting with classmates and friends, dozens of whom were staying in a string of houses close to the one that caught fire. Some had been asleep only a couple of hours when the fire started, and they likely never awakened, the medical examiner's office said.