Three students die in house fire

A smoky house fire near a University of Wisconsin campus killed three students who never made it out of the rooms where they were sleeping early Saturday, even though neighbors said they heard alarms.

Rescuers found two women and a man in three second-floor bedrooms near the University of Wisconsin-Stout. All three were pronounced dead at a hospital, authorities said.

The smoke detectors were working, and neighbors called police when they heard the alarms, said Menomonie police Chief Dennis Beety. Police don’t know why the three victims didn’t wake up and leave, and it was unclear whether alcohol was a factor.

“There was a bottle of alcohol and the top was off of it,” Beety said. “But that’s no indication they were drinking at the time.”

The cause of the fire was still being investigated Saturday.

New Orleans

Neville moves back to Louisiana

Aaron Neville is finally coming home to New Orleans – almost.

The R&B singer, who bought a house in Brentwood, Tenn., after Hurricane Katrina, said he’s buying a home near Covington, across Lake Pontchartrain and about 40 miles from New Orleans. He expects to close on the property in the coming weeks.

Neville was on tour with the Neville Brothers when Katrina hit in August 2005, leaving much of the city under water. Though he watched the disaster unfold from a distance, he couldn’t see himself returning.

Now he says he wants to be nearer to his children.