The Battauon
Vol. 71 No. 126
8 Pages
Friday, March 31, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Friday:
City election endorsements, p. 2.
Eurocommunism discussed, p. 3.
Injury-ridden Ags go to Waco,
p. 6.
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Commons area has
fire defenses
By LINDA SULLIVAN
As it stands, half of the residents of the
Commons area dormitory complex at
Jexos A&M University have but two de-
Ses in case of fire: evacuate or make a
one call.
|i campus-wide effort by physical plant
Hials to change the locks on all equip-
mffit rooms has left Krueger and Dunn
dolnitories without access to fire extin-
jiishers. All four of the five-pound carbon
Ride fire extinguishers have been kept
inaii handler rooms. But starting a month
| plant officials have been changing the
lock' — and no one nearby has the keys.
ifhe only person around with the keys is
■ coordinator Glenn Ferris. However,
Ferris office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. —
I lie's not always there.
Hire extinguishers were placed by the
[Iilversity Health and Safety office to spe-
liully combat the hazard of electrical
res in the facilities rooms. Some Com-
nons resident advisers, however, said
lies were under the impression the extin-
;uisliers were available for use throughout
pe dorms.
Ferris estimated this year’s total fire
Riage for the Commons to be less than
BO, but admits he will feel “more com
fortable with accessory fire prevention
equipment available. Thirty-eight ten-
pound fire extinguishers have been re
quested from the Office of Student Affairs
at a total cost of $750. Each resident ad
viser is supposed to have an extinguisher
in their room soon, Ferris said. He
couldn’t estimate the time. The dry chem
ical fire extinguishers will handle assorted
types of fires, including electrical fires.
Resident advisers may or may not re
ceive formal procedure instructions in case
of a dorm fire.
“Normally, at the first of the year our
office is asked to hold meetings with resi
dent advisers to go through the steps of
fire prevention, but some of the dorms
have not done this, ’ said Harry Stiteler,
safety coordinator for the department of
facilities.
Standard procedure for a dorm fire dic
tates the resident adviser telephone the
campus emergency switchboard (5-1111),
resident advisers have been told. The
switchboard is located in the radio room of
the physical plant and manned 24 hours by
operators.
Calls are monitored by the University
police who are usually dispatched to de
termine the credibility of the call, Stiteler
said. After receiving an emergency call,
plderly couple, dog
scape burning house
An elderly couple watched their house
lirn to the ground Thursday night. Mr.
|n8 Mrs. Walter Clay, and a pet dog, es-
■ed without injury from their burning
Rod frame house three-fourths mile from
Wtllborn Road, according to fire reports.
! A neighbor, Ray Waley, alerted the Col-
R Station Fire Department at 9:08. Two
Sucks $nd eight firemen were dispatched
follie blaze.
■on Garrison, College Station Fire De-
■tment inspector, declined to give the
Ilse of the fire although he said an inves-
Sation would follow.
in a bathroom closet. Gary Faulkner, a
neighbor, said, “I heard a noise that
sounded like shooting a gun. When I
walked up I saw flames shooting from the
front of the house.’
A propane gas tank, approximately 8
feet from the bouse, was the major cause
of concern to the firemen, said Garrison.
The tank had to be cooled by a water spray
to prevent a possible explosion, he said.
Property loss was valued at $30,000, and
$4,000 in cash was lost in the fire, said
reports.
Firemen remained at the scene until
11:30 p.m. while the charred remains of
the house smouldered .
the operator decides whether to call the
fire or police department, he said.
After the emergency phone call is
placed, evacuation begins. No formal es
cape plan exists, but resident advisers
have been told to warn as many residents
as possible without endangering their own
lives.
The Commons dorm complex was con
structed with a built-in fire detection and
alarm system. Panels in each of the four
head resident advisers’ offices and one at
the front reception desk flash lights pin
pointing the fire location. This allows for
early detection and prevents an uncon
trollable blaze. But the system isn’t fail
safe.
An over-heated clothes dryer in
Krueger Hall burned during the summer
of 1977, causing an estimated $500 in fire
damage. Smoke was seen billowing out of
the dorm, but the panels did not sbow the
fire’s source.
The light panels have been most accur-
age in determining trash bin fires, the
most frequent type of dorm fire. Ferris
said the problem is most prevalent in
Dunn Hall, where six trash fires have oc
curred this year.
“I don’t want to call it arson,” he said,
“but many times I believe the fires were
set intentionally.
Last week, there were two trash chute
fires, one in Dunn Hall, and one in
Hughes Hall (a north area dorm). If resi
dent advisers are sure the fire is confined
to a trash bin, they are able to put it out
themselves via a water hose located in
each trash chute room.
Stiteler said improvements to the fire
protection equipment at the Univerity are
now being planned.
A 1977 summer fire of undetermined
cause in the basement of the Memorial
Studnet Center prompted University offi
cials to appropriate $400,000 to improve
the campus fire precaution system. Cur
rently, there are more than 5,500 fire ex
tinguishers across the campus which are
inspected and tagged monthly by the Fire
Protection Division of the physical plant, y
“The money will go for detection sys
tems similar to the Commons equipment, ’’
Stiteler said, “to shorten the time it takes
for evacuation.”
Is it worth it?
This father-son team seems to ponder the need for
license plate stickers as they take part in the annual
courthouse waiting game. April 1 is the last day to
replace the stickers, but most tax assessor-
collectors won’t be open Saturday. So
County residents are waiting in line up
hours to buy the stickers.
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Lesehper Jr.
Brazos
to four
e Duke hospitalized;
heart surgery rumored
1 BOSTON
United Press International
A spokesman for Massa
chusetts General Hospital today would
neither confirm nor deny reports that
actor John Wayne will undergo heart
[surgery for replacement of an aorta valve.
■A Boston television station, WNAC-TV,
Says the actor will undergo the operation
Saturday morning.
■The station says Dr. Mortimer Buckley,
ineart specialist at MGH, will do the op-
er.it ion.
R“I cannot tell you anything except that
he is in the hospital and it is not cancer
nr
related,” hospital spokesman Martin Ban
der said today.
“If I were to conform that it was heart
surgery then it would no longer be a
rumor,” Bander said.
Dr. Buckley, who resides in Boston,
could not be immediately reached for
comment today.
Wayne lost a lung to cancer in 1964, and
recently had a bout with pneumonia.
Wayne; who will turn 71 next May, was
admitted late Wednesday. Bander said the
actor, who has appeared in more than 200
films in 50 years, has requested total pri
vacy.
Trial continues
Girlfriend testifies that Coleman had Baugh’s credit cards
By TERESA HUDDLESTON
W T alter Joe Coleman’s girlfriend told the
court Thursday that Coleman gave her
several credit cards that belonged to
Lawrence Baugh.
Coleman, 19, is on trial in the 85th Dis
trict Court for the Jan. 12, 1977 shooting
death of Baugh. His girlfriend told the
court that Coleman had come to her house
the night of Jan . 13th and told her he was
afraid for Baugh because he thought a man
named Richard might have killed him.
Coleman, for the first time, avoided any
eye contact with the witness. Instead he
kept his head down with his face hidden
behind his hand.
His girlfriend testified that she had
given the credit cards to her mother a
couple of days later and that her mother
had given them to Detective Bobby
Yeager.
Thomas Whitlock told the court that
Coleman had purchased gas with Baugh’s
credit card on Jan. 12 at a station where
Whitlock was employed. He said he had
known Coleman before but had never
Denise Nankivell waits for her mother to put
one more cherry on her plate at Wednesday’s
Battalion photo by Mary Alice Woodhams
March of Dimes luncheon at the Ramada Inn.
Denise is the 1978 National Poster Child.
Poster child
likes publicity,
travel, cherries
By MARY ALICE WOODHAMS
Battalion Staff
Five-year-old Denise Nan
kivell likes...Shaun Cassidy and
Mickey Mouse and marischino
cherries on her fruit salad.
She also likes traveling with
her mother on behalf of the
March of Dimes, and all the at
tention that goes with being 1978
National Poster Child.
Denise’s trip to College Sta
tion Wednesday was just one of
26 stops in Texas this week. She
says she sometimes gets tired,
but to see her running around
the dining room of the Ramada
Inn, you’d never know it.
Denise has vitamin
D-resistant rickets, and until re
cently she walked with the help
of leg braces. Treatment, how
ever, has improved her condition
and the braces have been re
moved for a trial period. The
March of Dimes pays for the
medicine she needs — about $50
worth a day.
Usually, Denise meets the
likes of Arnold Palmer, Shann
Cassidy, and the Dallas Cowboy
Cheerleaders (Cowgirls, as she
puts it).
But in College Station, she
met members of the Corps of
Cadets, who are trying to raise
$10,000 Saturday by marching to
the Brazos River. The money
will be donated to the March of
Dimes.
The organization’s local chap
ter held a luncheon for Denise
and her party, at which she wore
an Aggie t-shirt and learned a
new trick...the gig-em sign.
known his name.
The defense objected to Whitlock’s tes
timony saying it was evidence relating to
extraneous matters. Judge Barron over
ruled the motion.
Also giving testimony Thursday was
Coleman’s roommate at the time of
Baugh’s death, Ahmed Cherrak. Cherrak
said he had lived with Baugh for eight
months before he began living with Cole
man, and had introduced Coleman to
Baugh.
Cherrak said that on the night of Jan. 12
about 10:30, Coleman came home and told
him he had killed Baugh. He said Cole
man told him he had gone to Baugh’s to
pay back some money. Coleman told him
Baugh had made sexual advances towards
him and he had kicked Baugh in the neck
and broken it.
Cherrak said Coleman then told him he
had wrapped Baugh in a blanket and taken
him to the Navasota River. He said Cole
man wanted him to help burn Baugh’s car.
Cherrak said he refused and urged Cole
man to go to the police.
Cherrak said that he and Coleman went
to talk to some friends of Cherrak. Cole
man told them the same story, he said.
Cherrak said he talked to his friends
about Coleman and they decided to tell
the police.
“I was worried about Larry (Baugh). I
though he might still be alive, Cherrak
said.
Cherrak said one of his friends went to
tell the police and he and his other friend
waited with Coleman.
Mike Mansfield was working next door
to Baugh’s house on Jan. 12, 1977. He told
the court that on that day Coleman arrived
at Baugh’s house about ten minutes before
Baugh came home from work.
He said Coleman went to the back yard
of Baugh’s house. A few minutes later he
heard an explosion, Mansfield said. He
said he recognized the sound as that of a
small caliber gun.
Mansfield said Coleman came around
the side of the house and told Mansfield he
had shot off a firecracker. Mansfield tes
tified that the sound he heard was defi
nitely that of a small caliber gun. He said
he knew because he had been handling
guns since he was nine years old.
On cross-examination. Defense Attor
ney Fred Davis pointed out that in the
statement Mansfield gave on Jan. 20,
1977, he said the sound could have been
from a firearm or firecracker.
Dr. J. C. Lee testified there was no way
to determine the actual time of death
through the Jan. 15, 1977 autopsy because
the water in the river was so cold the body
was preserved. Lee said Baugh died of the
gunshot would to the back of the head and
there we no signs that drowning had as
sisted in the death.
Testimony will continue at 9 a.m. today.
Lack of communication
causes delay during fire
By DANA GARDINA
A call to the College Station Fire Department during the March 23 fire in
Hughes Hall was delayed 12 minutes because of a lack of communication in the call
to the campus emergency dispatcher.
According to Gene Oates, resident hall safety and maintenance supervisor, Lee
Harvey, head resident for Hughes Hall, called 845-1111, the fire emergency
number. This number connected Harvey with the police emergency dispatcher and
the radio room in the Physical Plant (campus emergency dispatcher).
The dispatcher in the radio room delayed the call to the fire department because
she assumed the call to the fire department would be taken care of by the police
department.
Police investigated the fire, then reported to the radio room to call the fire
department.
Fire engines arrived at Hughes Hall within six minutes and the fire was out in 20
minutes.
If the R. A. had called 845-4311, the general emergency number, she would have
reached the radio room only. The radio room would then contact the fire depart
ment and the police department.
“Either number should have worked. Oates said. “By talking to two people you
get twice the error probability.”
“The system failed, Oates said. “Nothing was really hurt, but that’s not the way
the system’s supposed to work."