Story from WLTX.com

(Newberry County) -- Sheriff Lee Foster with the Newberry County Sheriff's Department says a fire destroyed a fraternity house on Beth Eden Road in rural Newberry County.



Foster says the house was used by Newberry College's Kappa Alpha fraternity as a place to socialize. Investigators say members of the fraternity were at the house this weekend, but no one was there when the fire started.



Foster said no one was injured, and no one lived in the house.

This does not make a lot of sense to me. a horrible tragedy happened and one of the families victims wants to sue the other victims (the fraternity) to bring to light "safety issues in fraternity and sorority houses. " Hmmm. . .seems to me there are better ways to do it. perhaps work with ATO and the other victims? perhaps lobby for the Fraternity PAC and the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act which the NIC is pushing for all Greek to obtain safe housing? Nah, lets just sue!

story from wis10.com

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - The families of a student from Georgia and another who died in a 2004 fire at a University of Mississippi fraternity have filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed yesterday in Lafayette County, Mississippi, against Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and The Housing Corporation, the Ole Miss ATO chapter and others. The university isn't listed as a defendant.

The ATO house burned on August 27th, 2004. Three fraternity brothers died in the fire -- 20-year-old Jordan Williams of Atlanta, 19-year-old Will Townsend of Clarksdale, Mississippi, and 19-year-old Howard Stone, of Martinsville, Virginia.

The lawyer for Williams' family said the lawsuit's objective is to bring attention to safety issues in fraternity and sorority houses. Another law firm represents Stone's family. Townsend's family isn't listed as a plaintiff in either complaint.

The lawsuits seek unspecified damages.

Story from The University Daily Kansan

EXCEPTED

Jenny Ries had good reason to be excited for last week. She was moved into a new house, participated in Kappa Kappa Gamma’s formal recruitment and saw friends for the first time since before summer.

Last week was thrilling – just not in the way Ries, Apple Valley, Minn., senior, expected.

According to police reports, burglars broke into Ries’ house at 1121 Ohio St. Aug. 14 and Aug. 18. During the burglaries two laptops were stolen. Ries lives with 11 of her sorority sisters.

“We’ve lived in Kappa Kappa Gamma for years,” Ries said, “and had been excited to move out for our senior year. But this has been a disaster.”

Sorce = The University Daily Kansan

Repairs to the front of the Chi Omega house following a May accident may not be finished before the sorority begins its fall formal recruitment.

In May, a man crashed his pick-up truck into the front of the house, located at 1345 West Campus Rd. No injuries from the accident were reported.

Chelsie Harper, Chi Omega President and Hugoton senior, said the house is livable and sorority members will be able to move into the house in August for recruitment.

Michigan Tech's Local Sorority Alpha Xi Zeta house burnt down by a bolt of lighting. story from The Daily Mining Gazette

Excerpted.

HOUGHTON — Lightning caused the fires that burned two houses on Houghton Avenue Sunday morning.

That was State Police Fire Marshal Jeff Hubbard’s determination after a four-hour investigation Monday morning into the fires that burned 1201 and 1203 Houghton Ave., according to Houghton Fire Chief Jim Lightfoot. The same bolt of lightning struck both houses simultaneously, Lightfoot said.

“One didn’t catch the other one on fire because they are just too far away,” Lightfoot said. “The bolt just happened to hit both roofs and on from there.”

Residents of 1201, which was the Alpha Xi Zeta sorority house, spent much of their day Monday salvaging belongings from the house.

Story from "The Republican"

The University of Massachusetts completed the $2.5 million purchase of five fraternities houses formerly owned by Alpha Tau Gamma Inc.

Chancellor John V. Lombardi said at the time that the university wanted to buy the land which is on the entryway into the campus "to preserve a space for a future academic building.

"The site isn't really suitable for residences or commercial space because of the shape of the property, but it is a potential site for an academic building," he said.