Local
THE BATTALION Page 3
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1981
School to begin 52nd year
4,100 firemen expected
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Participants in the 52nd annual Texas Firemen’s Training
School, which starts next week, will be taught the latest in
Photo by Janet Joyce
firefighting techniques in the three-week program sponsored
by the Texas Engineering Extension Service.
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Police investigate attack in Briggs
By DENISE RICHTER
Battalion StafT
assault and a burglary occurred over the
ikend in Briggs Hall, University Police
pKief Russ McDonald reported Tuesday,
’cfjice have not determined whether the inci-
its are related, he said.
According to the University Police report, a
emale student was sitting on her bed reading a
>ook w^en two black men, one older than the
iverage college age and one juvenile, entered
ler room.
According to the report, the older man sat
lown on her bed and pushed her down and
idd her. The report said she screamed and the
object placed his hand over her mouth. A
icrson walking in the hall heard the scream
nd entered the room. The two men then fled
rom the dormitory, the report said.
The investigating officers checked the area
but were unable to locate anyone matching the
descriptions furnished by the witnesses, the
report said.
Briggs Head Resident Patty Johnson said
that after the men left the room, the two
women chased them down the stairs. The vic
tim fell on the last flight of stairs and was taken
to the A. P. Beutel Health Center where she
was treated for a sprained ankle and released.
The incident took place at 11:05 p.m. Friday.
McDonald said he heard of another incident
that occurred in the same area earlier that
evening. He said a woman who was walking
out of Briggs was confronted by two black men
standing in the hallway. It was reported that
one man grabbed her arm and she pulled away
and ran into Aston Hall. McDonald said the
woman then told her friends in Aston what had
happened and several of them went back to
Briggs. When they arrived, they heard
screams and were informed of the assault by
other Briggs’ residents, McDonald said.
A burglary also occurred over the weekend.
McDonald said sometime between 5 p.m.
Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday, someone en
tered a first-floor room in Briggs and stole over
$3,000 worth of jewelry and cash. The women
who live in the room were gone for the
weekend but said the window was locked
when they left.
There was no sign of forced entry and there
were no witnesses, McDonald said.
Johnson said a dorm security meeting will
be held in Briggs Thursday at 6:30 p.m. She
said she will conduct the meeting and will
stress the importance of keeping doors and
windows locked and being aware of strangers,
particularly males, in the hall.
Some people think Texas sum
mers are just plain hot.
But none will believe it more
than the 4,100 firefighters about to
don heavy protective coats in July
and sidle up to flames that raise
the temperature of everything for
a hundred yards around.
The firefighters begin gather
ing next week to learn the latest in
battling blazes at the 52nd annual
Texas Fireman’s Training School,
the largest and best-known prog
ram of its kind in the world.
The number of volunteer in
structors who pay their own way to
the school plus the instructional
staff of the Texas Engineering Ex
tension Service (TEEX) which
conducts the program and the ex
pected influx of visiting mayors,
city council members and other
officials should boost the three-
week training school enrollment
to over 5,500 this year.
Chief Henry Smith, director of
the TEEX Fire Protection Train
ing Division, said about 2,900 stu
dents and instructors will attend
the week-long municipal firefigh
ters’ course, always the largest,
which starts Monday.
Classes for special industrial
fire teams — those that battle
flames in petrochemical plants, for
example — should attract another
2,100 people while about 600 will
show up for the international
Spanish-speaking school which
last year attracted firemen from 11
foreign countries, Smith said.
Both courses are also a week long.
Morning classroom instruction
is followed by fighting controlled
fires set at Bray ton Field — 60
acres of facilities valued at more
than $7 million which include
mock-ups of a ship deck, a tank
truck, crashed jet fighters, apart
ments and chemical storage
equipment — adjacent to the
Texas A&M campus.
Lectures are held on campus.
Smith noted that since the fire
men’s school is the largest annual
conference scheduled each year at
Texas A&M, most of the universi
ty’s conference facilities ar re
served for the training.
Smith said three new training
areas will be discussed during the
upcoming municipal school —
arson recognition and detection,
techniques for battling grass and
forest fires, and instruction in the
use of the Texas Fire Incident Re
porting System.
The reporting system uses com
puters to file information on fires.
From the data banks, patterns
may emerge regarding “hot
spots," when and where flames
are likely to break out and how
personnel can best be used to pre
vent or battle the blazes.
The industrial and Spanish
speaking schools, beginning July
27 and Aug. 2 respectively, have
expanded including equipment
maintenance, he said.
TEEX is a state agency head
quartered at Texas A&M with re
gional centers and classes state
wide. In addition to the large
annual firemen’s school, the
TEEX fire protection arm also
conducts 24 regional fire schools
annually and holds both industrial
and volunteer training sessions
year-round at Brayton Feild.
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Research team makes
Fuel from waste products
A high octane fuel that may be
letter than gasoline has been pro-
luced from waste products gener-
ited in the effort to turn pine and
ither forest residues into liquid
iiel.
Dr. Ed Soltes, a wood chemist
t nd leader of a research team at
exas A&M’s Forest Science
laboratory, said his group has
j 1 wen the process of making fuel
rom plants one step further by
liming the by-products of the
iiel-making process into still more
uel.
» 4" "T ars > chars and gasses are cre-
' f / ted when plants are broken down
■''* isingheat,” Soltes said. “We have
aken the tars and by using tech-
; knowniiiology similar to that used in the
nental kPetrochemical industry, have
inesses, :. ,ro kon them down still further
, r anppjnto hydrocarbons similar to those
' 1 ‘ Jimd in engine fuels. ”
^ R . The research, sponsored by the
ecarne l, exas a&M Center for Energy
;11 Pham nc [ yii nera l Resources and the
i produce hs Department of Agriculture,
reatly improves the technologic-
;hange in ^feasibility and possibly the cost-
nce the Effectiveness of producing liquid
of (]arlstj* n 8' ,ie fuels from plants, Soltes
same as the gasoline used in your
automobile engine today.
“It might even be better than
the gas found on the market be
cause these hydrocarbons are very
high in octane,” he said. “It’s con
ceivable that we could be produc
ing an octane booster for gas, de
pending on how it is processed. ”
Until now, tars have generally
been troublesome and unwanted
by-products of thermal degrada
tion processes that turn plants into
fuel, said Soltes.
“The technology we’re develop
ing could permit the construction
of less expensive processes that
accept and even encourage tar
production.”
In addition to looking at the
compostition of tars from various
plants, the Texas A&M researches
are assessing the role that the
breakdown of pine residues can
play in meeting diesel fuel re
quirements for industry opera
tions.
“We started offlooking at diesel
fuel and found that the high-
octane gas could be produced,”
said Soltes. “Both can be pro
duced in the same process using
tar residues.”
The researchers are also iden
tifying processes that produce sig
nificant yields of tars and oils,
which would help establish direc
tion for future research and de
velopment work.
“Right now we don’t know
whether diesel fuels can be pro
duced in cost-competitive situa
tions with conventional diesel
fuel,” said the Texas A&M forestry
scientist.
“But the advent of fuels from
residues to power equipment for
agricultural purposes, much of
which runs off of diesel, can make
a significant impact on national
priorities in the use of such re
sidues and on diverting petroleum
reserves to higher-valued uses.”
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urc[| . He said the technique can be
. ^ iQ'.Ppbed to tars generated from any
rjes in lant, including agricultural pro-
jle line 11 ; acts suc h as corn co bs, wheat
/ives preiqeihs, wood chips or bark.
“One advantage of fuels from
ine residues over fuels from
^ther plant material is that en-
“■ ines will not have to be altered,”
oltes explained. “The stuff that
'e are producing is virtually the
•OLICY
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Station,
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