College Student Killed in Fire

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"When something like this happens, makes you wonder, makes me feel kinda lucky that nothing like that happens more often," said Seth Mader who lives along Water Street.

His house is near the apartment building that caught fire Monday morning, killing one student and hurting three others.

"It's definitely scary, I mean, like I said, you know the condition of a lot of these houses and it could happen anywhere," he added.

All across campus Monday, students shared similar thoughts, realizing a fire can sometimes happen too close to home.

"It kind of scares me now. I mean, our house is old, but you don't really think about having a fire in your house," said Garrett Olson, a UWEC student.

The fire was called in just before 6:00 a.m. Monday morning. The fire department says an Eau Claire Police detective called it on his way to work and tried to help.

"He was coming down the street, saw a large amount of smoke. He did make attempts to contact people and sounds like he did get a few people out," said Duane Grunst, Eau Claire Fire Department Deputy Chief.

When the fire department got to the scene, Battalion Chief Bryon Bensen says it took a couple hours before everything was under control. He says one of the initial concerns was about the fire spreading to nearby buildings. But he says the department was able to contain it. At this point, the building will likely be a total loss.

But foundations can be fixed, one freshman points out its the memories that take a lot longer to mend.

"Me and my friends have been looking to move off campus, but after reading that e-mail is made us second guess, whether not we want to or not, cause we don't know how safe it is, it kind of just scares everyone," the freshman added.

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One student was killed in the fire, and three more were injured. They are:

Ross Livermore, 21 a sophomore computer science major who was on leave from the university this semester, was killed in the fire.

Jacob Clarkson, 22, a senior computer science major, is at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis with serious burns.

Garret Isakson, 21, a junior management major, was treated at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire and released.

Casey Malan, 21, a senior English major, was treated at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire and released.