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Fire Sweeps Through Beach House

By Associated Press

7 now dead in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. Victims are said to be college students staying in a beach house Fire Sweeps Through Beach House

Published: Sun, October 28, 2007 - 12:23 pm Last Updated: Sun, October 28, 2007 - 4:24 pm

The number of dead from a beach house fire in North Carolina has risen to seven.
The mayor of Ocean Isle Beach says six others were treated and released from a hospital, including one survivor who jumped from the burning home and into an adjacent waterway.
Mayor Debbie Smith says officials have accounted for everyone believed to be inside the home. She says that to the best of her knowledge, all those at the house were college students, most from the University of South Carolina.

"It's terrible to see somebody's children come out of that house this way," said neighbor Bob Alexander.

The fire struck the house on Scotland Street sometime before 7 a.m. and burned completely through the first and second floors, leaving only part of the home's frame standing. The waterfront home is built on stilts, and firefighters had to climb a ladder onto the house's deck to reach the first living floor.

"The house is standing, but it's totally gutted," said Nick Cain, a student at the University of North Carolina who was staying at a house about 100 feet away. "We ran down the street to get away. The ash and the smoke were coming down on us. We were just trying to get away."

Authorities erected a blue tarp to block the view of the fire scene, but Alexander said he saw investigators removing bodies from the gutted remains of the home early this afternoon. Family members of some victims who gathered in a chapel across the street from the town hall declined to speak with reporters.

"It's a tragedy. That's all I know right now," Smith said earlier. "I understand there were some college kids in the house. Some got out. Some did not."

Cain said some of his friends had met several people staying at the house, and he said most appeared to be college students from the University of South Carolina. University spokesman Russ McKinney said the university has been in touch with officials in Ocean Isle Beach, but the school has no solid information on how many students, if any, are involved.

Amy Myers, a spokeswoman for Brunswick Community Hospital, said the hospital received six patients from the fire. All were treated and released, she said.

Ocean Isle Beach is in Brunswick County, about 30 miles north of Myrtle Beach, S.C. Only about 500 people live there year-round, but the town is home to several thousand rental and vacation homes and condos.

The burned home sits on one of a series of peninsulas, all tightly packed with homes, that are about two blocks from the beach and connect with the Intracoastal Waterway.