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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1996)
FRIDAY WEATHER: Today - Mostly sunny. Southeast wind 10 to 20 mph. Tonight - Mostly cloudy. Low around 5. COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 95 NO. 87 ■ . . - - ... -... .'■■■ . . - ... _January 19,1996_ Fire destroys NU presidential house Travis Heying/DN Lincoln firefighters try to contain a Thursday morning fire that ripped through the University of Nebraska Foundation residence maintained for the Nu president. Bitterly cold temperatures and winds froze the water to trees and equipment. Firefighters were rotated from duty every half hour. Matthew Waite/DN Wind, low temperatures slow firefighting efforts ByChad Lorenz Senior Reporter Below-zero temperatures and high winds complicated firefighting Thursday as a fire ravaged the uninhabited University of Ne braska Foundation’s presidential residence. Firefighters, their bright coats caked with ice, rotated in and out of the house through the garage. Each company entering the house relieved another on its way to “rehab.” Flames burst from the roof and the top of the garage on the house’s west side, and V. smoke billowed from windows and doors, ~ leavirig the burning house barely visible. Dean Staberg, deputy fire chief, said firefighters struggled for nine hours to con tain the blaze at 5930 Norman Road. The fire gutted the inside of the house, causing an estimated $500,000 in structural damage and $150,000 to $200,000 damage to its con tents. The house, which is designated for the NtJ president, was vacant at the time of the blaze. NU President Dennis Smith and his wife, Suzanne, live in a house they pur chased last summer, said Joe Rowson, UNL director of public affairs. The house was valued at $440,000, he said. Although much of the inside of the house was destroyed, Staberg said, most of the foundation and outer walls were intact and parts of the roof were sound and unharmed. Some property in the house, such as art work, furniture and clothing belonging to the Smiths, was salvaged, Staberg said. “We’re trying to save what we can.” University police Cpl. Carl Eastman, who investigated the fire, said the cause of the fire was electrical, possibly from an electric heater in the garage. At 7:12 a.m., Lincoln Fire Department’s fourth engine company, located at 27th Street and Old Cheney Road, was dispatched after a neighbor reported the fire. The three-alarm blaze brought six engine companies and three truck companies to Norman Road. A StarTran city bus stationed down the street served as the firefighters’ rehabilita tion center for thawing out coats, gloves, helmets, radios and body parts. When Staberg arrived, thick smoke ob scured vision two blocks* away, he said. Forty-mph northwest winds spread the See FIRE on 3 Asbestos removal main priority Improvements underway for residence halls By Julie Sobczyk Senior Reporter Life in UNL residence halls may soon get easier for students and staff, a UNL official said Thursday. Glen Schumann, assistant director of housing for maintenance, said projects to remove asbestos, replace dishwashers and upgrade computers were three priorities for residence hall improvements. Smith, Schramm, Cather, Pound, Abel and Sandoz residence halls all need asbestos removal on their first floors, he said. “Thank God we don’t have it in the residential floors,” Schumann said. “There is no health threat to students.” The process of removing the as bestos already has begun. Asbestos in the Abel Hall ballroom was removed last summer, he said, and asbestos in the Cather and Pound halls’ food ser vice building was removed over win ter break. The process will cost about $250,000, and all of the halls should be asbestos-free in about three years. A second renovation on the list is dishwasher replacement in the dining halls. “Technology has made it possible to eliminate existing equipment, such as the pot and pan washer and the dish machine,” he said. The new dishwashers will have in sulated sides, which will save energy. The total cost of the dishwashers will be about $800,000. The last renovation will be for tech nology upgrades. A room will need to be built in each “Technology has made it possible to eliminate existing equipment, such as the pot and pan washer and the dish machine. ” GLEN SCHUMANN Asst, housing director hall for fiber-optic wires to connect to computer wires from individual rooms, Schumann said. Some halls — Neihardt, Abel, Selleck and Burr — will need two rooms because of those halls* layouts. The project will cost $900,000 and should be completed in about three years. Stranded students have all-night slumber party From The Associated Press GRAND ISLAND — It wasn’t exactly breakfast in bed, but nearly 400 students and teachers at two Kearney schools made the best of being stranded overnight by the first blizzard of the season. Wrestling mats, cots and carpet became makeshift beds, though Christina Bokenkamp, a Kearney High School junior, spent Wednes day night sleeping on a tile floor. “It hasn’t really set in yet that I spent a night at school,” she said. “It’s something I will be able to tell my children and grandchildren. “It was quite the experience,” she said. “There was no heat in the building for a while.” Parents and volunteers used four wheel drives Thursday to get up a snow-packed hill to the high school and the nearby Horizon Middle School to evacuate the students. All of the students had left by 12:30 p.m. The impromptu sleepover was forced by light snow and winds up to nearly 70 mph that arrived sud denly Wednesday afternoon. Strong winds forced five buses to return to the school Wednesday afternoon. A few elementary school students, who were riding on the buses, also spent the night away from home. “Itiust hit so fast; it was a white out. Tne buses just couldn ’t go any where,” middle school Principal Jerry Menke said. “The kids thought it was OK; it was kind of like a slumber party, but it was abigone.”
