Hotel roof catches- on fire
FIRE from page 1
struction, firefighters had to haul
"hoses and equipment to the top of the
^building using ropes thrown down
ifrom the top flooeand the building’s
pelevator.
“Anytime a fire gets above street
If eve 1, it’s a lot of work,” Spadt said.
“It’s a very labor-intensive project.”
Before firefighters could reach
the top floor, a water nozzle mounted
at the end of a 108-foot fire ladder
\yas used to spray flames away from
the building’s elevator, Fire Capt.
Bruce Sellon said.
“They were able to clear an area
f and cool it down,” Sellon said. “They
can pump probably about 1,000 gal
lons a minute through the nozzle.”
.. Sellon said the elevator operator
misunderstood firefighters’ orders
and brought them to the building’s
top floor, where the fire was burning.
w, “We opened up the door, and
'there’s.the fire right there,” Sellon
said. “That’s where the tar kettle was
just outside the door.”
. Sellon said the tar kettle was
about 25 feet from the elevator and
engulfed in flames.
r Alter dropping a tloor, tiretight
ers then crawled onto scaffolding out
side the building and then onto the
roof, Sellon said.
• Firefighters were able to use the
wind by attacking upwind of the fire,
.out of the noxious black smoke
paused by the burning tar, Sellon said,
j.'* Sellon said the roof was almost
entirely covered in tar and on fire.
Adding to the problem, several small
propane tanks used to keep the tar
from cooling as it is spread were left
on the roof in the flames. Sellon said
one may have exploded.
Workers evacuating the building
were able to haul a 150-pound
propane tank down from the roof,
Sellon said, avoiding a potentially
Remains
returned
to
• yl
members
From staff reports
The first of 1,700 American Indian
remains housed on UNLs campus was
returned to its rightful owners
Thursday.
Members of the Ponca Tribe picked
up remains from the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln Thursday, said a trib
al representative.
The remains will be buried during a
* Ceremony today near Niobrara.
The remains are the first to be
returned since Sept. 1,1998, when uni
versity leaders signed an agreement
with tribal leaders to return American
Indian remains found in Bessey Hall in
1997.
Under the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act of
,1990, museums, federal agencies and
institutions are required to report their
inventories of native remains and funer
aryobjects to the National Park
the inventories are printed in
the federal register before the remains
can be returned.
Since the 1998 agreement with
UNL, only the Ponca and Omaha
remains inventories have been pub
lished in the federal register.
UNL officials would not comment
on the transfer of remains. Tribal lead
ers could not be reached for comment.
check us out on the Web
dailyneb.com
large problem.
The fire mainly burned tar, roof
ing materials, plywood., and
Styrofoam being used to build the
roofr" %5
“All that stuff can give off some
pretty nasty smoke,” Sellon said.
Smoke stopped coming frpjn the
top of the building at abodt f 1:20
a.m., although spot fires continued
burning inside the building through
out the day.
“We may have crews out there all
night just as a precaution,” Sellon
said. -
Below the fire, construction
workers watched much of their work
bum.
Midwest Partitions employee Jeff
I
Badger said he and his co-workers
had just finished construction around
the roof last week and that the top
floors were almost done.
“Man, we were so close to being
completely done with it,” Badger
said. “This really put a big damper On
everything.”
Barrett said scaffolding taken
down from completed sections of the
building would have to be replaced to
repair fire damage.
Wesely said the fire, while dam
aging, could have been worse.
“It’s a setback, but it’s not a disas
ter,” Wesely said. “A lot of our hearts
sank this morning when we saw that
horrible sight of the smoke coming
from that building.”
I
Police reroute traffic
during fire efforts
■ To clear the way for
emergency vehicles,
access around hotel was
restricted.
From staff reports
As the Lincoln Fire Department
rushed to put out a fire at the top of
the Embassy Suites Hotel, Lincoln
Police hustled to limit traffic access
around the fire scene to emergency
vehicles.
Assistant Police Chief John
Becker said emergency vehicles
needed clear access to fires, creat
ing the need to clear Lincoln streets
of traffic.
The fire began at about 10:30.
a.m. Firefighters and police faced
the task of restricting access around
the downtown hotel just before and
during lunch hour.
Adding to the problem, the
hotel is being built along 10th
Street several blocks south of where
Interstate 180 empties into Lincoln.
Becker said roads were blocked as
far as Sun Valley Road and
Comhusker Highway.
Becker said controlling traffic
would have been slightly more dif
ficult were P Street open to two
way traffic throughout downtown,
adding that one-way streets are usu
ally easier to control.
Police Capt. A1 Soukup said no
accidents were reported downtown
while streets were blocked.
__,_i ■ • _'
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Lied service offers
memorial to Jones
JONES from page 1
” crowd.
“Melvin W. Jones made his
work force into his family,” Moeser
said. “He made a unique and per
sonal difference in the lives of the
people who loved him.”
Jones was involved in several
groups, including the United Way,
the Downtown Lincoln Association
and MAD DADS.
Moeser announced that the
Melvin W. Jones Need-Based
Scholarship Fund and the Melvin
W. Jones Memorial Scholarship
Fund will be created at the
University of Nebraska Foundation
in Jones’ honor.
Several other people who knew
Jones gave remarks. Some state
ments elicited spurts of laughter
while others drew tears.
Bruce Currin, assistant vice
chancellor for human resources,
read a memo to Jones that his
department wrote after Jones’
death.
“Thank you for enhancing our
self-esteem and for caring about
us,” said Currin, while holding
back tears.
Jones used to give awards to
custodians to show his appreciation
for their work, Currin said.
Leon Caldwell, assistant pro
fessor of educational psychology,
drew applause from the audience as
he reminisced about the lessons
that he learned from Jones.
“Dr, Jones taught me that you
can be on a predominantly white
campus without being predomi
nantly white,” Caldwell said.
Jones was concerned about
racial issues, Caldwell said.
Even though Jones was a great
contract negotiator, he will be
remembered for his convictions,
Caldwell said.
The service concluded with the
singing of “Lift Every Voice and
Sing” by the entire audience and a
benediction from the Rev. Michael
Combs.
Shawn Bantz, a senior manage
ment major, had a class with Jones’
wife, Assistant Professor Mae
Colleen Jones, and was impressed
with her charisma and leadership.
“I came here to honor Mr. Jones
because he must have been a big
part of his wife’s greatness,” Bantz
said.
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