Edwardsville campus promotes fire safety after 2012 deaths

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) - Freshman orientation at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville will include a program on fire safety spurred by the 2012 deaths of two students at an off-campus apartment.

Twenty-one-year-old Lacy Siddall and 19-year-old Lauren Petersen died in April 2012. The two were childhood friends who grew up in Bethalto.

The university says the victims’ families and their attorneys donated a total of $20,000 to pay a private company to produce an educational video for new students. The donations came after the families received insurance settlements in 2014.