In the wake of Sunday morning's tragic blaze at 123 N. Bedford St., city and university officials continue investigating the cause of the fire and stress the importance of keeping up on fire safety codes.
City officials have stressed the importance of landlords and tenants maintaining working smoke detectors as a first line of defense against fires.
The house on Bedford Street had no working smoke detectors at the time of the fire, according to City Council president, Mike Verveer.
It's the type of tragedy waiting to happen, a tinderbox if you will, that the firefighters have worried about for decades,"" said Verveer. The house, which was built in 1919, had not been visited by city building inspectors since February 2005.
Eli Judge, Ald. District 8, said fire safety ordinances are now being closely examined in the wake of Sunday's blaze and the fire on Carroll Street Nov. 10.
""All development projects in the city of Madison have to be approved by several different agencies,"" Judge said. ""One of them is to make sure that they meet fire code.""
""It's very difficult to try and make changes until we know exactly what happened '¦ and what can be done to make sure it doesn't happen in the future.""
Campus area houses, such as the Bedford street residence, are at high risk of fire damage according to Verveer. Constant tenant changes and poor up-keep by landlords contribute to an increased potential for danger.
""It's an absolutely senseless tragedy,"" said Verveer of the death of 23-year-old, UW-La Crosse student, Peter Talen.
""You have to think that if there was a detector that had gone off, perhaps Peter Talen would be alive right now.""
Dean of Students Lori Berquam said Talen took this semester off, but was enrolled for classes at UW-La Crosse next semester.
""I had an e-mail exchange with the Dean of Students [at UW-La Crosse] who indicated Peter was well liked on campus and had a large number of friends,"" she said.
Nearly 800 friends and family joined a Facebook group entitled, ""In Loving Memory of Peter Talen,"" sharing memories and condolences to the Talen family.
Berquam said the UW-La Crosse campus would be conducting outreach programs for students in Talen's honor.
Student fire prevention
In addition to city officials, Berquam urged students Monday to seriously consider their own fire safety.
""Our hearts go out to all the students and their families affected during each of these difficult events,"" Berquam said in campus-wide e-mail Monday. ""As dean, it is my hope to avoid a repeat of these incidents.""
In a separate interview with The Daily Cardinal, she said she hoped students set-aside time to check smoke detectors and take other simple fire safety precautions.
""I think it's really easy to think, 'It's not going to happen to me,'"" she said. ""We all have to be mindful of this, especially when it's this time of the semester when there is so much going on.""
According to Berquam, two of the three victims in the 123 N. Bedford St. fire were released from UW Hospital Monday.
""I talked to them on the phone and indicated, of course, our office is here for them,"" she said, adding she contacted the students' professors. ""It's kind of been a mixture of a day.""
Verveer said some of the 123 N. Bedford St. residents returned Monday from a trip to Minnesota for the Badgers football game and were allowed to remove some of their possessions from the boarded-up house.
Similar to the aide offered to the Nov. 10 fire victims at 505 N. Carroll St., Berquam said university crisis loans would be made available for Sunday's victims, with further assistance from University Housing and the University Book Store to replace books.
She added one of the students in the N. Carroll St. fire had also offered the victims of Sunday's fire his phone number for additional support.
""I just thought that was a very thoughtful, very giving way to help others,"" Berquam said.
