Wednesday, february 23, 1977 daily nebraskan
Messaoe from 1 Of h floor Smith
page 7
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111 BW I I m
By Mary Jo Pitzl
"Owe ipon a rme there was a fire on 10th floor
Smith. No one was too happy and things were a mess.
What made matters worse was that people from other
places came to gawk and got in the way. There is nothing
we would appreciate more than to be left alone. We do
not need that and we strongly resent spectators. If you
don't belong here, get the hell off!"
This hand-written sign hangs on the sooty bulletin
board facing the elevators to 10th floor Smith Hall. Some
curious visitors have seen it and turned around before the
elevator doors could close.
For them, the charred floor is merely an attraction,
something unusual to talk about with their friends. But
for the women living on 10th floor, the blackened walls
and smoky rooms are home.
"People don't appreciate other people walking in their
rooms and saying, 'Oh what a shame?' We know that,"
student assistant Denise Muff said.
Muff and the women on her floor are trying to repair
the damage from the Saturday morning fire. The single
alarm fire gutted room 1016 and caused smoke and water
damage to other rooms of the floor. The state fire marshal
has not yet determined the cause of the blaze.
All that one can see of room 1016 is a boarded door.
"Closed by order of the University Police."
Incinerator
"It looks like the inside of an incinerator," sopho
more Judy Balwanz said of her former room. "It leaves
you like your stomach is going to turn around."
Balwanz said she was at her home in Omaha when the
fire broke out in her room. Her roommate, freshman Kim
Lee, said she spent the night with friends in town for the
state high school wrestling tournament.
"We were going out to eat breakfast and ,were driving
up 14th Street and we looked up and there was my
room," Lee said. "It was kind of a bummer."
Lee said she lost everything she owned in the fire.
"I had some stuff at home, but you knpw," she said,
her voice trailing off, "Judy lpst a TV, I lost a stereo. A
lot of expensive stuff."
Lee said her father is checking to see if her family's
insurance plan will cover her losses.
Balwanz estimated her loss at more than $1,000. "I
had a lot of personal stuff at my home," she said. She
noted that Lec lost personal items in the fire. "Stuff like
that (yearbooks, pictures) can't be replaced."
Property covered
The homeowner's policies of the student's families
should cover personal items lost in the fire, according to
Roy Loudon, director of personnel and UNL representa
tive for Aetna Life and Casualty Co.,
Ten per cent of the value of the contents covered in a
homeowner's policy applies to contents damaged away
from the home premises, Loudon explained.
This 10 per cent extension is included in every fire
insurance policy in the state, he said. The Nebraska State
Fire Insurance policy is the only standard insurance policy
the state has, he said. ' .
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Photo by Kevin Higley
The tenth floor of Smith Residence Hall has become aa attraction for unstcd visitors.'
UNL insurance will cover the damage to Smith Hall, .
Loudon said. Under policy terms, UNL pays for the first
2500 lost, with Aetna compensating for the rest of the
damage on a replacement cost basis, Loudon said.
Damage estimates will be made after the state fire
marshal completes his investigation, Loudon said.
Balwanz and Lee have been reassigned to another room
on second floor Smith. Neither girl can explain why the
fire started.
Freshman Doris Uher, who used to live in 1015, said
she heard a loud banging in the room next door before the
fire was detected. '
"It never phased me what it was," Uher said, explain
ing the noise was like a bed being slammed against the
wall. "I thought they (th'e occupants of 1016) were being
awfully loud for a Saturday morning."
Smelled smoke
Three floor residents notified student assistant Denise
Muff when they smelled smoke, and pulled the fire alarm,
after Muff used her pass key to open room 1016 and saw
smoke.
Smith Hall residents were evacuated and couldn't
return to their rooms until 1:30 p.m. Saturday, according
to Housing Director Richard Armstrong. Tenth floor
residents returned to their smoke and water damaged
rooms by 6 p.m., he said.
Aside from the spectators circulating on 10th floor to
look at the damage, "everybody's been great," Muff said.
Uher and her roommate, sophomore Diane Clader,
have been temporarily reassigned to rooms on 10th
floor. All other floor occupants are remaining in their
rooms, and no one has asked to move off the floor,
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according to Muff.
Ttw 10th floor residents have been receiving help from
the university community, Muff said.
Collections have been taken on other floors within the
Harper-Schramm-Smith Residence Hall complex, the
Smith Hall government has offered financial help and
clothing contributions have been sent to 10th floor, she
said. Nebraska Bookstore replaced all of Lee's books that
were destroyed in the fire.
"There's been a tremendous amount of all university
support in clean-up," . Muff said. Residents wanted to
thank everyone who has been helping them out, she said.
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