As the Mississippi University for Women family prepared today to mourn four students lost in a Birmingham, Ala.-area hotel fire, state and federal investigators said that there was no evidence that the blaze was intentionally set.
Fire broke out in the two-story Days Inn motel in Hoover, Ala., Saturday night, spreading quickly through the wood-frame structure. The blaze killed 18-year-old cousins Alondan “Angel” Turner and Catherine Ann Muse of Cordova, Ala.; Jamelia Brown, 18, of Grenada; and Jaslynn McGee, 19, of Corinth.
A candlelight vigil is planned on the MUW campus at 7 tonight in the Pope Banquet Room on campus.
“This is an opportunity for the campus community to come together as one to honor these students. We want to offer our students hope and support during this very difficult time,” Phillip Cockrell, director of student life at MUW, said in a statement.
“They”ll always be in our memory,” Natalia Baldizon, 19, a sophomore from Memphis, who serves as Highlander president, said of her friends Muse, Turner and Brown.
Peter O”Connor, a supervisor with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said investigators on Tuesday had finished going through about half of the fire scene without seeing any signs of arson, but they had yet to determine the fire”s cause.
Hoover fire inspector Richard Linn said officers were seeking tips from anyone who may have seen or had contact with the four victims, all freshmen who lived in Kincannon Hall.
“We are trying to get the full story of what happened the last 48 hours of their lives,” said Linn.
Officials said someone from the students” second-story room called 911 to say they needed help, but the door and window were blocked by flames and firefighters couldn”t get to the victims in time to save them.
A spokesman for the Hoover Fire Department, Rusty Lowe, said the room had smoke detectors but lacked a sprinkler system. The motel was built in the 1960s before sprinklers were required.
The four friends were on a shopping trip in Birmingham and were the sole victims of the fire, which caused heavy damage to 25 to 30 motel rooms. The Birmingaham News reported only four to five of the fire-damaged rooms were occupied.
Brown and McGee were pre-nursing students, Muse was majoring in theater and Turner was an accounting major, university officials said. Brown was a pledge of the Troubador social club and was a W-Rep, Muse was a pledge of the Highlander social club and Turner worked in the MUW Child Parent Development Center, the school”s on-campus daycare center.
“We were Highlander sisters,” Quintillia Fowler, 20, a sophomore from Memphis, said of Muse. “She will be very missed. She was the life of the party.”
“She was actually full of life,” Samwel Kapsandoy, 23, a junior from Nairobi, Kenya, said of Muse. “She was a down-to-earth kind of person and she made the people around her feel at ease.
“Both of them were very joyful people,” he added of Muse and Turner. “I only knew them for a semester, but I enjoyed being around them.”
The president of the Troubador club, Becky Pearson, 21, a senior from Louisville, said Brown was “a great girl.”
“She was very energetic and just full of life,” she added. “We”re all sorry that happened. My club is very upset about it. It”s hard to lose someone like that.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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