Now that the Decatur Fire Department has determined the fire's cause, announced Wednesday at the university, students and faculty members will begin to rebuild the house that Schwalbach loved and worked hard to improve. Schwalbach, who graduated from Edwardsville High School, was attending Millikin on a football scholarship and studying communications. He spent most of his free time with his fraternity brothers and fixing up their house a block from campus. I would like to help put the house back together for Nick. The scarred brick house sits empty now.
Plywood covers the first-floor windows.
A smelly trash bin in the yard filled with moldy and burned furniture waits to be hauled away. Several windows on the third floor are broken. Firefighters carried Mike Heger, a junior from Decatur, out of one of those windows the morning of the fire. Schwalbach and Heger were sleeping at opposite ends of the third floor. The fire started in a lounge area between their rooms, and in front of a stairway.