Hampden-Sydney fire rescue attempt spurred by friendship

If he hadn't cared so deeply about his closest friend, Kirk Rohle might not be facing months of treatment for the second- and third-degree burns he suffered in an early-morning fire at Hampden-Sydney College on Wednesday.

Rohle and his friend, Benjamin Rogers, were both recovering Thursday at VCU Medical Center. Rogers suffered relatively minor second-degree burns, and his family expects him to be released today. Rohle's family was relieved that he was showing early progress in what promises to be a long and painful recovery in the hospital's burn unit.

The Rohle and Rogers families live across the street from each other in Mechanicsville. The boys have been inseparable since they were in elementary school. They have played football together — Rohle as a running back, Rogers clearing a path for him as an offensive lineman — since they were Little Leaguers playing flag football.

They graduated together from Hanover High School. They're both seniors at H-SC. Rogers was selected last month as an All-American, and Rohle earned Old Dominion Athletic Conference second-team honors playing for the Tigers football team that made it to the NCAA Division III playoffs again last season.

They were also housemates with seven other students in a residence on the outskirts of the bucolic campus of the all-male college in Prince Edward County, a little more than an hour southwest of Richmond.

The fire — which started from a cigarette butt that had smoldered for hours on a couch on the porch of the two-story house — rousted the residents, all H-SC athletes, just after 4 a.m. Wednesday. Eight of the nine residents were sleeping in the house at the time.

Matt Maloney of Atlanta, a senior linebacker on the H-SC football team, was one of the residents. On Thursday, he stood in a visitors' area outside the VCU burn unit and recalled what happened once his roommate woke him Wednesday.

"I could see the fire," he said. "I ran upstairs shouting — trying to get everyone up."

Maloney said he went back downstairs and grabbed a fire extinguisher, but soon he knew the blaze was too far along. "The fire exploded," he said. "The glass on the door burst. The floor was so hot it burned my feet. … I made my exit."

Once outside, Maloney and the others counted heads. "We knew right away that Ben wasn't there."

Rohle, along with quarterback Travis Lane and defensive lineman Josh Phipps, went back into the house. Rohle disappeared into the thick, blinding smoke shouting Rogers' name.

Shortly thereafter, Rogers emerged, covered with soot and his face burned red, but relatively all right. So did Lane and Phipps. Now only Rohle was missing.

Moments later, Maloney heard Rohle's voice. "Kirk was just outside a first-floor window, yelling, 'Help me!' "

Maloney said it was immediately apparent that Rohle's burns were extreme. "We didn't want to touch him any more than we had to, so we wouldn't injure him further," he said, "but we needed to get him away from the house. … He was screaming the whole time."

Within minutes, emergency workers arrived. Rohle was flown to Richmond. He remained in critical but stable condition Thursday evening, hospital officials said. Rogers was listed in good condition.

Chuck Ironmonger, Hampden-Sydney's fire safety supervisor, said the house that burned had been inspected Jan. 4, and all its smoke detectors were working. He said the fire gutted the house and caused its second floor to collapse onto the first.

Ironmonger said the investigation of the ruins made it clear that a cigarette butt that had inadvertently dropped onto the sofa was the cause of the fire.

Rohle's father, Ken Rohle, said his son, who had been in a medically induced coma some of the time so that he could be better treated, was making encouraging progress in his first full day of treatment.

"His worst burns," said the father, "are on his toes and fingers. We think he was trying to stay low, under the smoke, sort of crab-walking, and burned himself touching the floor."

He said medical teams have removed the charred skin from his son. "They told me it was like sending him through a car wash."

He said his son is likely to be in the hospital for as long as three months.

Rogers' father, Todd Rogers, said the outpouring of support from the college and from friends has been gratifying. "Well over a hundred people were here to see about the boys," he said. "Hampden-Sydney coaches, teammates, students, administrators, President (Christopher B.) Howard — they were all here. So were their high school coaches."

Todd Rogers, who owns Hometown Realty and who has Rohle's father on his roster of agents, shook his head at the thought of Kirk Rohle re-entering the blazing house and searching for his son.

"Kirk and Ben have been through so much together," he said. "This tells you how close they have become over the years."

Todd Rogers said that when he and his wife, Becky Rogers, were told that the two friends were both injured in the fire, "Becky said, 'Do they have to do everything together?' "