Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of a tragic house fire at the former residence of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity on Groveland Avenue.

The fire claimed the lives of fraternity brothers Cody Pilkington, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, and Brandon Davis, a senior in materials science.

In an article published Oct. 10 of last year, Raleigh Fire Marshall Larry Stanford said Pilkington and Davis died of smoke inhalation while attempting to escape from the second floor of the duplex.

More than two weeks went by before the cause of the fire was discovered.

In another article, published Oct. 26 of last year, Raleigh fire marshals had determined that the source of the fire was a smoldering cigarette. The fire never reached the second floor, but created large amounts of smoke.

Chris Scofield, a junior in political science and rush chair of SAM, said after a year, the fraternity is still struggling to recover.

“We’re still trying to rebuild, but it’s still hard to do after something like that,” he said.

David Tilton, a senior in business management and vice president of SAM, said the fire strengthened the bond between his fraternity brothers.

“It has brought us closer together,” Tilton said. “We aren’t a very big fraternity.”

Scofield said the fire had a noticeable effect on membership.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work. It’s actually been pretty tough since the fire,” he said. “We’ve dropped in numbers. Before the fire, we were growing in numbers.”

SAM’s members moved into their new house, a rental on Shepherd Street, in early August.

“Since we’ve been in [the new house], we’ve got nine guys living in the house. Things have been good,” Scofield said. “We’ve been throwing parties, having events there, tailgating — we have a central location. We’re all in the same location pretty much. Before we were much more spread out.”

Scofield said having the new house is beneficial to the fraternity as a whole.

“It helps having a house, as far as being a fraternity and as far as being a group of guys,” he said.

According to Tilton, the fraternity has emphasized fire safety in the house since they moved in.

“We’ve made a house rule — no smoking allowed,” he said.

Cody Pilkington and Brandon “Moose” Davis will be commemorated in the foyer of the new house.

“We are working on a painting for our foyer,” Tilton said. “We’ll see it every time we come in. That’s what we are doing to commemorate them.” According to Tilton, the University planted a tree on Centennial Campus as a memorial. He said the University held a ceremony on Saturday to add a plaque to the base of the tree.

Tilton said experiencing the tragedy changed his perspective on life.

“When something like this happens, you learn not to take things for granted as much,” he said.

Dave Rudisill, a sophomore in mathematics and member of SAM, said he fondly remembers his fraternity brothers.

“They are two of the greatest guys that I knew,” he said. “Brandon was always fun to hang out with. Cody was the same way.”

Pam Pilkington, Cody’s mother, along with family and friends, created the Cody Blue Pilkington Scholarship Fund in memory of her son.

“The scholarship is set up for three high schools — North Carolina School of Science and Math, Ayden-Grifton High School and Arendell Parrott Academy,” Pilkington said. “The scholarship is geared toward students who are rising freshmen and sophomores at NCSU. They have to be majoring in engineering — science and math concentration.”

Pilkington said the scholarship will be awarded biannually.

“We’ve done one so far — we did our first this fall semester,” she said. “We’ll do another this spring.”

On Facebook, friends of Pilkington and Davis continue to post messages on their walls. Updating them on events of the new school year, friends say thanks for watching over them and leave reminders of how much they are missed.

Remembering the circumstances that caused her son’s death, Pilkington said she would urge students to be aware of their surroundings.

“Probably the most important thing is to always be aware of what’s going on around you,” she said. “You can’t always control what everyone else does, but look out for yourself and for each other.”