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THURSDAY, MAY 16,19%
Fraternity Fire Leaves Five Dead
Cigarette Might Have Caused Blaze
BY JEANNE FUGATE
EDITOR
Days after a fire gutted the Phi
Gamma Delta fraternity house killing
five UNC students, investigators have
begun to draw a picture of how the
blaze swept through the quiet house
after a pre-graduation bash had ended.
Investigators have concluded that
Sunday’s
pre-dawn
fire was acci
dental,
Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill May
Require Sprinklers
See Page 3
Fire Chief Dan Jones said Monday.
The blaze started in the southeast cor
ner of the basement, where the frater
nity kept housewares, wood, paper
products and trash. A smouldering ciga
rette or match dropped near the bar
probably started the fire.
All eight people who were in the
building when the fire struck have been
accounted for, investigators said. The
three survivors escaped the blaze by
jumping out a second-floor window
onto the fraternity house lawn.
The State Bureau of Investigation,
jy ■
DTH/ KATHLEEN OEHLER
Firefighters remove a body from the wreckage at Phi Gamma Delta.
Joanna Kristine Howell,
21, a junior from Cary,
majored in journalism
4 Real World’ Intrudes Earlier
Than Graduates Had Expected
■ Nearly 4,000 members of
the Class of 1996 graduated
in frontof 30,000 on-lookers.
BY JOHN SWEENEY
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
For the nearly 4,000 members of the
University community who donned caps
and gowns on May 12, this trip to Kenan
Stadium was not about sell-out sports. In
stead, it marked an important, yet imper
ceptible metamorphosis: the transforma
tion from UNC student to UNC graduate.
UNC celebrated its 194th annual com
mencement exercises on a cool, sunny
Carolina morning with about 30,000 friends
and relatives of graduates looking on.
Nobel Prize winning Irish poet Seamus
Heaney delivered the keynote address.
Before the ceremony began, Chancellor
Michael Hooker touched on a tragedy that
no one in the stadium would recognize
until later.
“Right now our thoughts are with those
who are affected by the fire,” he said.
Although authorities confirmed five
deaths from the Phi Gamma Delta frater
nity house fire before noon, the ceremony
went on without anyone the wiser.
For the graduates, it was both an ending
ELECTIONS
dee:
Chapel Hill Police and Fire Departments
and the Orange County Emergency Ser
vices completed their collaborative in
vestigation Monday after searching the
house until 10 p.m. Sunday.
The team could not definitely ascer
tain the cause. “An actual cause of igni
tion will be impossible to determine,”
Jones said.
Assistant Fire Marshal Lany Johnson
said that the downstairs room had old
pine panelling that helped the fire to
spread quickly. He said doors includ
ing all the upstairs bedroom doors—and
windows were open, allowing for the fire
to bum and move rapidly.
The fraternity had propped open the
door to the basement as well. Johnson
said if that door had been closed, the fire
would not have spread so quickly be
cause the door would have stopped oxy
gen flow.
The medical examiner completed al
cohol and carbon monoxide testing on
the five victims from the fraternity fire
and issued an official statement Wednes
day.
See FIRE, Page 5
|T?
1' ijjfc ■
DTH/KATHLEEN OEHLER
Members of the class of 1996 celebrate their graduation at commencement
on Sunday morning at Kenan Stadium.
and a beginning, as academic careers were
left behind, and new lives in the “real
world” got started.
“We came expecting, we leave remem
bering, we came with nothing, we leave
with everything, ’’ said Thad Woody, presi
dent of the class of 1996, in his address to
Make that world before you a better one by going into it with boldness.
Seamus Heaney
Primary Races Set
Stage for November
Inter-party political battles
come to a close as voters
head to the polls. Page 7
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DTH/ KATHLEEN OEHLER
Firefighters combat the blaze that killed five students early Sunday morning.
f ‘ jaggy
Benjamin Watson Woodruff,
20, a sophomore from Raleigh,
majored in economics
the graduates.
Chancellor Michael Hooker remarked
that it was his first UNC commencement,
not just as chancellor, but in any capacity.
“Even though I'm an alum of Carolina,
See GRADUATION, Page 2
Picture Perfect
A photo essay documents
the 1996 Commencement
excercises in Kenan
Stadium. Page 9
Remembering Those We Have Lost
I* 1
Mark Briggs Strickland,
21, a junior from Rocky
Mount, majored in bioiogy
Tar Heel Point Guard Opts for NBA Draft
■ Jeff Mclnnis became the
seventh UNC basketball
player to leave school early
for the pros.
BYROBBIPICKERAL
SENIOR WRITER
Questions, questions.
That’s all that remained last week when
Tar Heel junior basketball player Jeff
Mclnnis announced that he would forego
his senior year to enter the NBA draft:
questions about his draft status, questions
about his reasoning, questions aboutaUNC
Bodybuilder Arrested in Carrboro Murder
■ Stacy Jones was charged
with first degree murder for
the Friday slaying of Heather
Dawn Prather.
BYAMYCAPPIELLO
CITY EDITOR
The murder of Carrboro resident
Heather Dawn Prathercame one step closer
to being solved Sunday night after an ac
quaintance, Stacy Jones, was arrested out
side of Gotham night club.
Although police would not comment
on what led them to suspect Jones’ in-
A
BY JEANNE FUGATE
EDITOR
“Remember when you were young
you shone like the sun," the rock band
Pink Floyd sang.
The lyric must have struck a chord
in one young man. Mark Briggs
Strickland, a victim of Sunday’s Phi
Gamma Delta fraternity house fire,
had this quote printed by his senior
picture in the 1993 Rocky Mount Acad
emy yearbook. Above the quote, one
picture shows a much younger
Strickland, in a captain’s hat, behind
the wheels of an airplane. Strickland
also beams from another high school
picture with a smiling date.
Right below Strickland’s yearbook
picture, Josh Weaver smiles awk
wardly.
Strickland and Weaver, both jun
iors from Rocky Mount, shared a year
book page, a lifelong friendship and a
similarly tragic death. The fire claimed
Jpr** IBP’
DTH/ KATHLEEN OEHLER
Students grieve outside the charred house Sunday afternoon.
Robert Joshua Weaver
20, a junior from Rocky
Mount, majored in biology
hoops team that
would have been
favored to win the
ACC had its start
ing point guard re
turned.
Mclnnis, who
was a second-team
All-ACC selection
this season, went
against the advice of
his mother and sev
eral pro scouts when
he announced via a
press release May 8
that he would leave
behind the UNC argyle. “It may not seem
volvement with Prather’s death, they did
say both frequented Gold’s Gym in
Carrboro. Jones was an avid weight lifter
and Prather was a part-time instructor at
the facility. Thus far, Jones has made no
statement about his involvement in
Prather’s death. However, police did say
Prather’s abandoned car was found about
300 feet from Jones’ house.
Twelve law enforcement agents arrived
at the scene of Jones’ arrest at Gotham.
There were officers from Carrboro and
Chapel Hill as well as State Bureau of
Investigations officers. Carrboro police Sgt.
Joel Booker said they arrested Jones with
out incident in a back alley of the club.
“The bouncers, who he knew, asked
Free Food?
The Board of Governors
approved a plan to
renovate dining services
without raising student
fees. Page 3
the lives of a childhood friend of theirs,
Anne Mcßride Smith, also a junior
from Rocky Mount; as well as that of
Joanna Howell, a junior from Cary,
and Ben Woodruff, a sophomore from
Raleigh.
People who have read Strickland’s
quote said they sensed the irony during
a time when everyone is grappling to
remember the victims.
“This is the time when brotherhood
and sisterhood mean the most,” Dean
of Greek Affairs Ron Binder told the
three organizations that lost members.
As friends and family spoke about
the people who were now gone, they
continued to emphasize the importance
of the friendships these students formed
with their peers, their families and their
community.
Josh Weaver
Josh Weaver took on many different
See STUDENTS, Page 5
0
Anne Mcßride Smith,
21, a junior from Rocky
Mount, majored in English
to be the best decision for my placement in
the draft this year as opposed to next, but it
has become necessary for several personal
reasons, the greatest of which is to help my
family financially,” Mclnnis said in the
release.
Indeed, Mclnnis is one of a bevy of
guards to leave school early to enter the
draft.
Georgetown’s Allen Iverson, a sopho
more , and Georgia Tech freshman Stephon
Marbury are expected to be the first two
point guards taken on June 28th, leaving
Mclnnis in a pack of six-to-seven other
guards waiting for their names to be called.
See MCINNIS, Page 6
Coach Dean Smith said
he didn't expect JEFF
MCINNIS to be picked
early.
him to step outside,” Booker said. “They
didn’t tell him why. We did it that way to
protect the people in the bar, Mr. Jones and
ourselves.”
Jones had his first court appearance
Monday afternoon. He was charged with
first degree murder and was appointed a
public defender, Booker said. District At
torney Carl Fox said he and Jim Woodall
will be prosecuting the case while James
Williams will defend Jones. Fox said he
did not yet know whether he would seek
the death penalty for Jones. He said that
decision depended on a hearing that will be
held in June to determine if the case will be
See SHOOTING, Page 6
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Volume 104, Issue 40
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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