The Sig Ep fire aftermath

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First of all, I want to thank ALL of the I-Badger reporters, fellow bloggers (especially Steve L from Something Verbose and Matt W from DBAW), and other random students (you know who you are, but I don’t have permission to use your name… yet) for the info/pictures/stuff. I had an amazing amount of feedback last night. Great work by the campus blogosphere on this campus tragedy (hint hint, traditional news teams…). Perhaps a new era in UW-Madison history last night.

The bloggers chime in:

Something Verbose has an interesting story. Could this fire have been prevented? Was there a failure in the Greek leadership? There’s something here, media. Look into it.

But, could this have been prevented? Only two weeks ago on April 30, the Greek Community held a Fire Prevention Workshop in Humanities that was mandatory for all chapters to have a representative attend. Barb Kautz was in charge of the meeting and the Fire Marshall or someone from MFD was supposed to give a presentation. However, half an hour after the workshop was supposed to occur, all the participants were dismissed because the Fire Marshall did not show up to give the presentation and could not be reached.

Wisconsin Lounge update.

Elliot Rezny.

Some other items worth checking out:

- UW-Madison’s Sig Ep Alumni speak out:

Dear SigEp WI Beta Alumni,

Today is a tragic day for SigEp WI Beta. Last evening the SigEp house at 237 Langdon Street caught fire and is considered a total loss. Thankfully, all 28 brothers who were living at the house got out safely. During the emergency response, three Madison fire fighters suffered minor injuries and our thoughts go out to them.

At this time, we are working to find housing for displaced brothers and to help them complete finals and the semester. The Dean of Students Office, UW Greek Life Office, Red Cross and Madison Fire Department have all responded wonderfully and we would like to thank them for their support.

At this time, we do not have any specific details on the long-term plans of the Fraternity and the house. Your support of the undergraduate brothers and the Alumni Board are very much appreciated, and in the future we will distribute information on how you can assist in the recovery.

Information will be distributed via e-mail and the undergraduate and Alumni Board websites will both be updated regularly. You can contact me via e-mail, and I will respond as quickly as I am able.

We have also set up a site at www.UWGreek.com/SigEpFire.html, where the latest updates will be posted.

This is a very challenging time for our fraternity. However, we have recovered from fire before and become stronger because of it.

We will rebuild.

HFF,
Patrick Kovich

- A heroic police officer:

The first person who came to the aid of the students Monday night was Madison Police Officer Angie Dyhr.

Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Dyhr was on routine patrol when she spotted smoke coming from the fraternity house.

“She called dispatch to have the fire department sent to the location,” DeSpain said. “Then she got out of her patrol car and saw flames engulfing the back of the house.”

Dyhr found the door to the house locked, so she started pounding on the door until a resident answered.

“She began yelling for the residents to get out,” DeSpain said. “Officer Dyhr, with the help of fraternity members, was able to make sure all were evacuated.”

She then helped notify and assist residents in neighboring homes and buildings in evacuating in case the fire would spread.

- Cost of damages (in an otherwise rude article):

This is the second time this particular frat house has suffered a fire and the estimated cost of the damages is about $750,000. I hope the boys have collected enough dues to cover that chunk of change.

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