For NWU students, surprise and shock

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

Many students at Nebraska Wesleyan University said Friday they were stunned by a fraternity house fire that killed one student and critically injured three others.

Tyler Andersen, a freshman who lives in Plainsman Hall just down the street from the fraternity house, had just gone to bed after studying all night for a biology quiz when he heard screams and shouts outside.

At first, he said, he thought it was no big deal -- just an initiation party. Then he heard sirens.

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Ashley Regelean, facing camera, a student at Nebraska Wesleyan University, hugs a friend at the scene. (AP/Bill Wolf)

Ashley Regelean, facing camera, a student at Nebraska Wesleyan University, hugs a friend at the scene. (AP/Bill Wolf)

"They just kept coming and coming."

Andersen walked outside and saw at least one fraternity member receiving CPR. Others huddled in the morning cold, wearing only boxers.

"It's just kinda unreal," he said he remembered thinking. "People are actually hurt."

Leslie Zeckser, 20, an NWU biology major from Hastings, said she heard an alarm about 4 a.m. from her room in Burt Hall.

“I just heard a bunch of guys screaming. It almost to me sounded like a fight” had broken out. “At the time I didn’t know what it was.”

She looked out her third-story window and saw “a ton of flames” shooting out a window of the fraternity house.

Senior Adam Stange said his fraternity, Theta Chi, was prepared to help Phi Kappa Tau members any way they could.

Theta Chi had at least two open bedrooms that could temporarily house several displaced students, Stange said.

"I was like, 'What the heck?'" he said of learning of the fire.

"Everyone's in shock."