Work has begun to rebuild a University of Mississippi fraternity house destroyed in a fire one year ago tomorrow. The fire destroyed the house of Alpha Tau Omega, killing three fraternity members.
“It hit pretty close to home with all of us, and when we went the following day, it made each of us realize how important each individual member is,” Mississippi State University ATO president Drew Sparks said.
The fire at Ole Miss made the MSU chapter realize a number of things, vice president David LeNoir said, including the value of life.
“When you’re in a Greek organization-we’re in ATO here, they’re in ATO there-we all have a common bond.”
After the fire, the MSU chapter raised hundreds of dollars by standing at the doors of local bars and asking people if they would donate money as they entered, he said.
The tragedy also made Mississippi’s legislature realize some things. In the wake of the tragedy, the legislature passed a bill allowing state officials to inspect all sorority and fraternity houses, including privately-owned houses. Previously, privately-owned houses were not subject to state inspections.
Assistant chief deputy fire marshal Eugene Humphrey said the fire marshal’s office has done inspections on privately-owned fraternities and sororities since the bill was passed.
“At first nobody that I’m aware of did any inspection, and a private property doesn’t have to let you in,” he said.
Now, he said, inspectors can look at buildings, and people have been cooperative.
“We don’t want to happen what happened last year,” he said.
Humphrey listed a number of steps students can take to avoid fires, including not burning candles and incense inside, avoiding space heaters, unplugging irons and heaters and paying attention to unsafe conditions such as spliced wires.
ing attention to unsafe conditions such as spliced wires.
MSU’s chapter of ATO, which is privately owned and currently houses 17 members, has worked to ensure they do everything possible to prevent a fire, LeNoir said.
“We upgraded our fire alarm system throughout the house and made sure we comply with the fire code to make sure we could be as safe as possible,” he said.
He said the fraternity also made members aware of anything that could be a fire hazard.