After a recent fervency in a Nebraska Wesleyan University Fraternity firm kill one student and hospitalize three others , investigator are trying to determine whether a laptop was creditworthy for the blaze .
Full story after the jumping .
Published November 21 , 2006
Laptop eyeball in fatal attack at college
BY MATTHEW HANSEN AND PAUL HAMMEL
WORLD - HERALD BUREAU
A faulty laptop computer estimator is being investigated as the possible cause of a deathly fraternity fire that obliterate one Nebraska Wesleyan University student and injured three others , government agency said Monday .
Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey suppose a laptop computer found in the elbow room of Ryan Stewart , 19 , of Ord , Neb. , has been sent to a Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco and Firearms science lab for analysis .
Faulty batteries in laptop electronic computer have been fault for a string of late fires , prompting a recall by several figurer companies .
More than 6 million of the Li - ion shelling made by Sony and betray worldwide have been recalled .
Lacey say it was too other to make a definitive judgment about the cause of the fatal fire .
“ ( Investigators ) have got a long means to go , ” he said . “ They do n’t really know what happened , and I ’m not sure they will . ”
Flames engulfed a room on the second taradiddle of the Phi Kappa Tau brotherhood house about 4 a.m. Friday , killing Stewart , sending three other fraternity members to a hospital burning unit and prompting other frat member to jump from second - story windows to miss the blazing .
The tragedy prompted an onslaught of support from other students , professors , alumni and random Nebraskans .
It also sparked questions about the behavior of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity members in the minute before the flack , part because sodality loss leader confirm that the fire started not long after they concluded a night of “ activation activities ” in a seven-day initiation of new member .
Sarah Boatman , Wesleyan ’s vice President of the United States of student life , said she ’s take heed rampant surmisal about the fire ’s cause from students not affiliated with the sodality .
“ remove the first wave of energy must go to care for all of our students , ” Boatman said . “ As we ’re taking care of our community . . . the doubt get down to arise . How did it start ?
“ The community has a deep , abstruse desire to know . ”
Boatman , Lacey and a brotherhood spokesman would n’t respond to on - campus rumor that fraternity members shot off bottle rockets inside the fraternity house in the hour before the firing .
Tim Klipp , a next-to-last and the sodality ’s social president , said the sodality ’s members have been apprize not to talk publicly about the hour before the fire , or any possible cause of the fire , until the investigation is ended .
“ As of right on now , we ’re wondering the same thing as the residue of the world , pretty much , ” he say about the flaming ’s cause .
Maria Roy , who lives straight behind the fraternity household , said she did n’t discover fireworks Thursday night . She did hear fraternity members party late that nighttime , she said .
The neighbor sound out she often see vernal military man drinking alcohol behind the fraternity house .
“ They ’re college kid , and that ’s what they do , ” she said .
On Monday , members of Phi Kappa Tau donned browned brotherhood T - shirts and affixed shameful ribbon to their chests as they attended some class after a weekend spent talking to fire investigators and undergo heartbreak counseling .
Fraternity members were buoy by the news that the three scholar injured in the fire had recover enough to breathe without respirators , Klipp said .
Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln upgraded Travis Mann , 22 , of Beatrice and Aaron McGuire , 20 , of Sioux Falls , S.D. , to fair condition Monday . David Spittler , 20 , of Elkhorn , was upgraded to serious condition .
The fraternity ’s members , who have n’t been back inside the house to recollect their belonging , were also amazed by the overflow of support from the university and city , Klipp said .
Students present them honest-to-god books and clothes . Wesleyan sorority cook meal for them . Professors pass on fraternity member money on campus Monday .
The crowing contribution of all came from Alpha Gamma Delta sorority , which will allow the fraternity member to live on their vacant third floor until the frat can reopen its house , Klipp said .
“ When you have people around here that sleep with you this much , it ’s just nuts , ” Klipp read . “ aboveboard , we do n’t even cognise how to be thankful . ”
The grieving process will continue for those near to Stewart , said Pauletta Lehn , Wesleyan ’s campus minister .
The heartache may be compound because many of the pupil have never lost a tight friend or family extremity , she allege . It also may be exasperate by lounge feelings of guilty conscience .
“ Guilt is certainly one ( emotion ) , ” Lehn said . “ Why did n’t I go back for Ryan ? Why did I jump out of the window so soon ?
“ When you think living is going to go on always , and then you have something like this happen , it strikes you right to the magnetic core . ”
get through the Omaha World - Herald newsroomCopyright © 2006 Omaha World - Herald ® . All rights appropriate . This fabric may not be published , beam , rewritten , display or distributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World - Herald .
Copyright 2006 Omaha World - Herald . All right appropriate .
Laptop eyed in calamitous fire at college[Omaha ]
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