Everyone involved agrees that a gas-powered water heater caused the fatal carbon monoxide leak at Roanoke College last month, but beyond that there is conflicting information and finger pointing:

• An official speaking for the manufacturer of the hot water heater said Wednesday that improper service work done by the school on the heater apparently caused the gas leak.

• The school says it last serviced the heater in July 2005, a year before it began to leak carbon monoxide, and the work had nothing to do with the incident.

• An attorney hired by several of the victims says his investigation shows that State Industries is to blame for designing an unsafe hot water heater.

A jury may have to sort it all out.

Don Russo, a Miami attorney who represents a woman who he says nearly died from poisonous gas that seeped through the Sections dormitory, said this week that he expects to file suit against State on behalf of the woman and several other victims who have hired him.

"I think State Industries has a product liability problem," Russo said.

Mark Petrarca, senior vice president of public affairs for A.O. Smith Corp., the Milwaukee-based parent company of State Industries, would not respond to questions about potential litigation.

"There are obviously going to be multiple opinions about this," he said. But according to what State Industries has learned, maintenance workers hired by Roanoke College recently performed repairs on the heater and failed to properly re-install its venting system. That in turn allowed carbon monoxide to escape from the heater, Petrarca said.

Roanoke College spokeswoman Teresa Gereaux disputed that account. Gereaux said the college's work on the heater involved leaking water pipes, not the exhaust system. She also noted that four months after the work was completed, the water heater passed a state inspection.

"We think that Mr. Petrarca's comments are extremely unfortunate and not supported by the facts," Gereaux said. "There is no evidence that this was a maintenance problem. His statement is wholly self-serving."

Gereaux said an investigation continues in an effort to determine exactly what went wrong the morning of July 14, when Walter J. Vierling was found dead in his dorm room. Officials say carbon monoxide killed the 91-year-old and sickened more than 100 people who were staying in the dorm for either a Lutheran church conference or a college prep program.

According to Russo and the Salem Fire-EMS Department, a mechanical breakdown in the hot water heater is the apparent cause.

Russo, who specializes in carbon monoxide litigation, said he expects to file suit within weeks. Based on the information he has received so far, Russo said, it appears that the company is more culpable than the college.

"My experience tells me they are going to try to blame it on the college," Russo said.

Russo's investigation has produced the following theory: When the heater was installed in 1998, the owner's manual directed that an exhaust fan be mounted at the top to force fumes -- including carbon monoxide -- through a pipe and out of the building.

But the location and assembly of the fan caused it to vibrate continuously, which in turn loosened it from the screws holding it to the heater until it eventually fell off, he said.

That set off this account of events, described in an investigative report by the Salem Fire-EMS Department obtained under the Freedom of Information Act: When the fan failed to clear the heater of fumes, they ignited when the heater switched on. That caused an explosion that blew a metal dome off the top of the heater. The dome came to rest on a valve that was supposed to turn the heater off. With the valve stuck in the open position, the heater continued to burn natural gas and the resulting carbon monoxide seeped through the building.

Russo said he visited the college several weeks ago with an expert witness to inspect the heater. He said his version, based on photographs and other information obtained at the scene, differs from the explanation offered by State Industries.

"They better have some damn good photographs," he said.

Last week, documents revealed that Salem firefighters missed two rooms in their search to make sure that the Sections dorm had been evacuated. The two rooms -- one of them occupied by Vierling and the other by Judy Norris of Middlebrook and Christine Puffenbarger of Staunton -- were overlooked for more than three hours because their doors opened to the outside of the building and not to the interior hallway used by firefighters.

Puffenbarger is one of Russo's clients, the attorney said. Despite the human errors that were made that day, Russo said he does not plan at this point to include rescue workers in his lawsuit.

In fact, he said, the emergency responders saved Puffenbarger's life with the treatment they provided at the scene. Had Puffenbarger not been found when she was, Russo said, she would have died within minutes.

Puffenbarger referred questions to Russo. Her temporary roommate at Roanoke College, Judy Norris, said she has been contacted by the attorney but is not inclined to join the lawsuit.

Norris said she woke up shortly before 6 a.m. July 14 feeling nauseated and dizzy, and that she called 911 after discovering Puffenbarger lying unconscious in her bed. Norris had thought all along that she called for help shortly after waking up. But it now appears that she was lying on the floor unconscious for more than three hours before coming to and dialing 911 on her roommate's cellphone.

Rescue officials said the call from Norris' and Puffenbarger's room was placed at about 10 a.m., after the rest of the victims had been taken to local hospitals with less serious symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure.

Had she not woken up when she did, Norris said, "in another two or three minutes Christine and I might have both been walking those golden streets." 

She has no plans to sue, Norris said, because "I am just so thankful to be alive. But it does concern me that the fire department missed us." 

It was only after rescue workers responded to Norris' call that they discovered the body of Vierling, a retired Lutheran pastor from Giles County, in a nearby room. "The time lapse is devastating," said his daughter, Corbin Vierling. 

Vierling said she and her brothers have been speaking to two attorneys, one of them Russo, about the possibility of filing a lawsuit. But the family is reluctant to blame Roanoke College, a Lutheran-affiliated college that for years has hosted a summer church conference on its campus.

"My father loved the church so much that it is a relief to me to think the source of the problem does not trace back to Roanoke College," Vierling said. "He was so happy to be there."