During finals week of last semester, the Omega Delta fraternity suffered a loss that will never be forgotten by its members.

“Everyone’s room that was near the front of the house lost everything,” said Gerardo Torres, senior English and journalism major and president of Omega Delta

At about 5:40 a.m. on May 6, a fire began to erupt on the roof of the fraternity house at 835 Greenbrier Road

“The fire spread so fast,” said Hugo Jacobo junior political science major.

The fire then spread onto the front of the house and moved down towards a couch laying on the front lawn. The fraternity members denied the rumors that the fire started because of people smoking cigarettes on the couch laying in front of the house. Torres said the DeKalb
Fire Department informed the fraternity members that the fire started on the roof, but the cause of the fire is still unknown.

“We have fire alarms mounted around the house, but not one went off,” said Bryan Bohorquez junior political science major. “Luckily, the fire department came soon after it began.”

Despite the chaos of the fire, one person was still sleeping. He woke up when the fire department arrived, and then jumped out of a second-story window to escape the house.

“Although this situation was incredibly hard on all of us,” Torres said. “It brought the best out in everyone; we all have become much closer.”

After smoke cleared from the air, the rest of the Greek community came together to support Omega Delta.

“We would really like to thank everyone that helped us out,” Jacobo said. “People from surrounding fraternities and sororities donated all types of things to help us.”

Sigma Kappa had the fraternity over for dinner, Sigma Lambda made T-shirts and, Sigma Alpha Mu offered storage space.

“It was really nice to see everyone come together as one,” Bohorquez said.

Now Omega Delta is ready to move on and start fresh. With fall semester’s rush getting closer they are excited to meet new potential members.

“We would also like to tell all other Greek houses to make sure all of your fire safety equipment is updated and working,” Bohorquez said. “Better safe then sorry.”

The 13 students displaced by the fire are now living in different apartments. They are hoping to move back into the house next fall, but there are still issues to be worked out with the landlord, they said.

The Omega Delta fire is one of two fraternity fires that occurred this summer. On June 29, DeKalb firefighters extinguished a burning couch at the Alpha Kappa Lambda house at 917 Greenbrier Road

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