News & Observer | newsobserver.com | No cause known for fatal fire

Published: Oct 29, 2007 12:33 PM
Modified: Oct 29, 2007 08:37 PM

No cause known for fatal fire

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OCEAN ISLE BEACH - OCEAN ISLE -- Investigators continue to search for the the cause of the house fire that killed seven South Carolina college students Sunday as students and parents mourn the loss of young lives.

Six students from the University of South Carolina and one from Clemson University died in the blaze. Six other USC students in the house survived.

Chip Auman, the beach house's owner, whose daughter Katherine, 18, was injured in the fire, said in a statement today that his family was "numb, shocked and confused."

"There are no words to describe what we've been going through," said a distraught Auman, who declined to take questions while speaking to a reporter at a hospital in Hartsville. "We are living a nightmare."

Auman said daughter Katherine is suffering from smoke inhalation. Her condition was stable, but guarded.

"As a father, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected by this devastating situation," Auman said.

Authorities have not released the names of those who died, but relatives have identified most of them.

-The father of Allison Walden, 19, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, confirmed today that his family is planning a memorial service for his daughter Saturday.

Terry Walden told The (Columbia, S.C.) State that he sent his daughter’s dental records for identification purposes.

Walden said after speaking with his daughter’s roommate, Fallon Sposato, he believes his child never woke after going to sleep early Sunday. Sposato was at the house with Walden, but escaped the blaze, he said.

-Sophomore Travis Cale, 20, of Greenville was among the students who perished, his brother Burns told The State.

Cale, described as an upbeat and quick-witted young man, graduated from J.L. Mann High School in 2005 and grew up a Gamecock fan, friends and relatives said.

-Anna Lee Rhea said her older brother, William, was among the dead - a devastating blow to their older brother, Andrew, who made it out of the house alive.

"Everybody loved him. Everybody really misses him," she said in a brief telephone interview with the Associated Press. "You couldn't help but love him."

-At 19, Justin Anderson hadn't decided exactly what to do with his future, his brother Stephen Anderson told the Wilmington (N.C.) Star.

Stephen Anderson, 23, confirmed that his younger brother, a USC sophomore who grew up in Greenville, was among those who died.

Justin Anderson apparently died after a night doing what he loved to do - hanging out with friends and watching the South Carolina Gamecocks football team, which played Tennessee on Saturday.

"I'm sure they were (watching the game)," Stephen Anderson said.

-Lauren Mahon of Simpsonville is another victim, according to a memorial page set up by her friends on facebook.

A freshman, Mahon listed law and real estate as her academic concentrations on her facebook profile page.

Mahon is also listed as a 2007 pledge for the USC chapter of Delta Delta Delta on the sorority’s Web site.

Mahon’s friend, Megan Manesscq, set up the page today in memory of Mahon.

-Friends of Cassidy Penley told the Charleston Post and Courior that the Fort Dorcester High School graduate was among the victims. Memorial pages for her are posted online.

Authorities briefly considered an outdoor fireplace, known as a chiminea, located under a second-floor as the source of the fire, but have ruled that out, said Ocean Isle Mayor Debbie Smith.

A report is expected in a couple of days on the cause of the fire after an ongoing investigation by town police, the State Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.


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