Child dies in house fire
By Tht Associated PrtM
One child was killed and his two broth
ers were in critical condition after an apart
ment fire Thursday in northeast Lincoln.
Robin Foreman, the childrens' mother,
had made a telephone call from a neighbor’s
home after getting a telegram that her
grandmother had died when she returned
to an apartment engulfed in flames.
“She came back yelling and screaming
that there was a fire and her babies were in
there,” said Connie Gunnerson, the neigh
bor whose telephone Foreman used.
Gunnerson and another neighbor, Mary
Hayes, ran with Foreman to rescue the chil
dren, but the flames were too hot.
“We got inside the door, but all the win
dows and stuff were busting out. My hair
caught on fire and we backed out of there,”
Gunnerson said.
Hayes said: “We went in the house and
the fire was already in the living room and
the smoke was already black and thick. We
heard the babies crying out but we didn’t
know where they were.”
They returned to Gunnerson’s apartment
complex to get a wet blanket.
“I’m not sure what happened after that,”
Gunnerson said.
Another witness also tried to help.
“I knew the babies were in there and I
was going to go in to get them but when
glass started popping, I had to back off,”
said Scott Johnson. “There was nothing I
could do... I knew there was nothing I could
do.”
After trying but failing to get inside the
apartment, Foreman collapsed in the middle
of the street, Gunnerson said.
Fire officials had report of a fire at 1:19
p.m. and the first units were at the scene
two minutes later, Deputy Fire Chief
Lawren Brodd said. Other apartments in the
fourplex in northeast Lincoln had smoke
damage but there were no other injuries.
Foreman, 21, was treated and released
at a hospital. Fire officials said she had been
treated for shock.
Her 3-year-old boy, Steven, was killed
in the blaze.
Jason, 2, was in critical condition at St.
Elizabeth Hospital, suffering from smoke
inhalation and third-degree bums over 10
percent of his face and arms, hospital offi
cials said. Nathan, about 1 year old, was in
critical condition from smoke inhalation.
The 3-year-old may have been playing
with matches or a lighter and set the blaze
off, fire officials said.
Plant fined for contamination
OMAHA — Asarco Inc. will be fined $3.25
million for discharging pollutants into the
Missouri River according to terms of an agree
ment outlined Thursday.
U.S. Department of Justice and Asarco at
torneys said they have agreed in principle to a
settlement.
Documents in U.S. District Court in Omaha
outline the following terms:
- Asarco is to be assessed a $3.25 million
penalty “to resolve all violations of the CWA
(Clean Water Act)” at its downtown Omaha
plant.
- Asarco is to meet clean water effluent lim
its and monitoring requirements and to pay
penalties for future violations.
- Asarco is to follow a schedule to complete
building a waste-treatment facility no later than
Sept. 1, 1995, and meet final discharge limits
by Dec. 31, 1995, or pay penalties.
Before the proposed settlement can be sub
mitted to a federal judge for approval, it has to
be reviewed by the Environmental Protection
Agency and two Bellevue residents who chal
lenged the discharges.
Gus Paul, Asarco plant manager in Omaha,
could not be reached for comment.
The director of an environmental group that
triggered legal action over the discharges said
the proposed fine is too low.
A $3.25 million fine “strikes me as hardly
a slap on the wrist for a corporation that has
been behaving as if the Clean Water Act didn’t
exist,” said Dan Luecke, director of the Envi
ronmental Defense Fund’s Rocky Mountain
Office in Boulder, Colo. “Penalties are de
signed to discourage the kind of behavior
Asarco has demonstrated.”
Luecke said a fine should be more than $5
million “to deliver any kind of message to make
it clear this kind of behavior can’t be toler
ated.”
He also objected to the where the fine is to
go — the federal Treasury.
Luecke said he hoped Asarco would be re
quired to pay more money “to establish the
Nebraska endowment or a group that would
work on remedies for all the past contamina
tion in the Missouri River.”
Last winter, at the urging of the Environ
mental Defense Fund, two Bellevue residents
sued Asarco for discharging lead, zinc, arsenic
and other contaminants into the Missouri in
violation of the Clean Water Act.
They contended that Asarco’s discharges
posed “a substantial risk to human health and
the environment.”
Asarco denied the allegations.
The Clean Water Act required Asarco to
obtain a permit for its discharges into the river.
The company was never issued a permit.
Later, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency sued Asarco for water quality viola
tions.
Nebraska family must wait to meet pope
NEW YORK (AP) — Cancel the
T-shirts. Stop the music. Forget the
special elevator lift. Pope John Paul
IPs trip to New York has been post
poned, much to the disappointment
of thousands of Catholic faithful.
Debbie and Pat Wahlmeier of
Juniata, Neb., and their nine children
had been scheduled to meet the pope
at Shea Stadium as the Knights of
Columbus’ 1994 International Fam
ily of the Year.
“We’re certainly disappointed but
it was just overwhelming to think
we’d come that close to meeting the
pope,” said Mrs. Wahlmeier, 38, in a
telephone interview from her home
in Juniata, a rural south-central Ne
braska community of about 800 about
six miles west of Hastings.
The family, with children ages 14
months to 14 years, were invited to
see the pope next year instead.
“I would be humbled to breathe the
air that he breathes,” said Mrs.
Wahlmeier.
The Vatican said the trip would be
delayed a year because the pope has
not recovered from a broken leg suf
fered in an April fall and needs fur
ther physical therapy.
He will make the trip in Novem
ber 1995 to coincide with the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the
United Nations, the Vatican said.
Cardinal John O’Connor said the
Vatican was “very insistent it was a
matter of mobility,” dismissing re
ports that the pope has other medical
problems. “He is not ill. He is in
deed a very vigorous man and is frus
trated by the fact that he can’t move.”
The news sent a wave of disap
pointment through the metro area,
where preparations were in full swing
for the Oct. 20-23 visit that included
prayer services at Shea Stadium and
Yonkers Raceway and Masses at St.
Patrick’s Cathedral, Giants Stadium
and Sacred Heart Cathedral in New
ark.
Bishop Henry Mansell said that
among the plans already under way
were special ramps and an elevator
lift at the altar in St. Patrick’s, spe
cially commissioned music for the
Yonkers event, chair and car rentals,
and logos for a gaggle of papal sou
venirs.
Joe Zwilling, a spokesman for the
New York Archdiocese, said it would
be several weeks before it is known
how much money was lost and what
was covered under the diocese’s $1
million insurance policy with Marsh
McLennan.
“I don’t think anybody expects
that we will completely break even
but we had cancellation insurance just
for a contingency such as this,”
Zwilling said.
“Our greater concern is the disap
pointment that the holy father is not
coming and the disappointment of
those who looked forward to his
visit,” he said.
Net^ra&kan
Editor Jeff Zeteny
472-1766
Managing Editor Angie Brunkow
Assoc. News Editors Jeffrey Robb
Rainbow Rowell
Opinion Page Editor Kara Morrison
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