Fire Survivor: Jumping Was 'Only Option'

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A student who survived a beach house inferno by leaping from a third-story window said Tuesday he wasn't sure what woke him up, but he had to make the decision to jump quickly because smoke was filling the room.

Tripp Wylie, a student at the University of South Carolina, said he heard crackling and popping after he awoke Sunday, then opened the bedroom door, letting smoke in. He went to the window and saw flames coming from the front of the house. As it became harder to breathe, he stuck his head outside.

"You knew you had to jump at some point; that was the only option," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Wylie said he made "a very lucky jump" into a canal that runs next to the house, clearing the concrete bank of the waterway to reach safety. His friends weren't as lucky. Seven of them died in the fire at the Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., beach house, and six others were injured escaping it.

The victims included an aspiring attorney, a high school homecoming queen, fraternity men and sorority women. They were ardent football fans, out for a good time at the beach.

Six of those killed attended the University of South Carolina. A seventh went to Clemson University. Officials have said many were members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority — and some had gone to high school together in Greenville.

"There are no words to describe what we've been going through," Chip Auman — whose family owns the Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., vacation house — said while visiting his hospitalized daughter. "We are living a nightmare."

Debbie Smith, mayor of the resort community, said Monday investigators believe the fire was likely accidental and started in the rear of the house, either on or near a deck facing a canal. That side of the home appeared to be the most heavily damaged. Most of the victims were found in the home's five bedrooms.

Randy Thompson, director of emergency services in Brunswick County, N.C., said Tuesday that local officials hope to receive an initial report from North Carolina state investigators on Friday. Ocean Isle Beach officials have said they don't expect any word on a possible cause until after a review of that and other reports.

"It's an awful loss for someone that had a pretty good future in front of her," Terry Walden said of his daughter, Allison, from his Ohio home. "It sounded like they were having a good time. Unfortunately, the fire didn't show any mercy."

Investigators quizzed dozens of college students who filled several homes near the site of the disaster.

Rebecca Wood, the president of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity at the University of North Carolina, said police wanted to know if the college students were using a grill or small outdoor fireplace. She told investigators all the grilling was done far from the house.

Police in the beachfront community, which has only about 500 full-time residents, are working with the State Bureau of Investigation and federal officials. Autopsies will take place at the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill.

"It may be a few days," spokeswoman Sharon Artis said. "We have not identified any of them yet."