COLUMBIA, S.C. - Through much of Sunday, many students on the University of South Carolina campus seemed unaware of the fatal fire in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.

The evening worship service at The Shack, a Christian coffee house near the 27,000-student campus, began with the announcement that seven students had died.

"A lot of them didn't know," said Garrett Curry, a university chaplain who said that in coming days he will try to help students confronting "the big questions" that come with tragedy.

The names of the dead, six of whom attended USC, were not released. A single detail -- that some victims were associated with the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity -- made the losses imaginable, but frustratingly unspecific.

Three women who had pledged to the sorority lived on student Jewel Sheehan's floor last year. "You wonder, 'Were they there?' " Sheehan said.

She heard about the fire after seeing news trucks at the Russell House student union. She first assumed reporters were on campus to cover an appearance by comedian Stephen Colbert. A fellow student set her straight.

Amanda Shumpert said the deaths were frightening to consider. "When you first hear about it," she said, "it doesn't really register."

"It kind of reminds you that time is short here on Earth," added Carole Muedder.

With the university's football team playing out of town, many students were away from campus, said Dennis Pruitt, vice president of student affairs.

Students and parents began arriving at dorms Sunday afternoon, some carrying laundry hampers and bags of groceries after a weekend off campus.

By 3 p.m., groups of young women had gathered in the parking lot at the Greek Village, where many sororities and fraternities have houses.

They cried while they talked on their cell phones.

A chaplain turned reporters away.

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