NC beach house fire killed 7 a year ago

OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. (AP) _ It was a year ago that seven South Carolina college students died in a house fire in the worst disaster in the history of a North Carolina beach town.

The lot where the house once stood on Scotland Street at Ocean Isle Beach is empty. Visitors still ask directions to the site on the Brunswick County island so they can leave flowers or just look as they reflect on the fire on Oct. 28, 2007.

Harold Atkins, who lives across a canal from the site, said visits are slowing down to a few each week, The Star-News of Wilmington reported Tuesday

“It was one of those times when you really don’t know what to do, what to say,“ Atkins said. “It was a terrible accident. But that’s what I firmly believe it was. Just a terrible accident that happened.“

Town officials dedicated a memorial earlier this year — a steel cross inscribed with the students’ names at the foot of the bridge to the mainland.

Mayor Debbie Smith said she hopes the memorial has helped bring some closure for the community and the families.

Atkins said the closure process for the town started when the charred house was bulldozed this spring. It will take another step when a new structure is built.

Smith said the town is working to improve fire prevention, especially by educating the thousands of renters who come to the town each year.

Family members of some victims have urged that fire sprinklers be required in large residential structures. Atkins said he agrees.

“Sprinkler systems would be a small price to pay to save lives,“ Atkins said.

A town commissioner said the physical reminders of the fire are retreating, but the memory of the tragedy hasn’t faded.

“This is a day we will remember forever as a tragedy and a void in our hearts,“ said Commissioner C.D. Blythe.

The state medical examiner has said alcohol contributed to the deaths of six of the seven students.