The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 26, 2004, Page 4, Image 4
Fire
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The building was equipped
with standpipes, hoses located on
the walls in the hallways and
stairwells; however, none of the
hoses had been activated, and no
fire extinguishers were used be
fore emergency crews arrived,
Downey saitj.
All the bodies were found on
the third floor. A young boy was
found lying close to the body of a
woman, Greenville County
Coroner Parks Evans said,
along with two other women
found in the hall. Two more peo
ple—a man and a woman-—were
found in separate rooms, Evans
said.
At least a dozen others were
injured and transported to
Greenville Memorial Hospital for
smoke inhalation and burns and
cuts received trying to get out the
windows, Downey said.
At least five of those victims
were transferred to a bum cen
ter in Augusta, Ga., said Beth
Frits, the center’s spokeswoman.
All were in critical condition, she
said.
Police officers, firefighters and
even the desk clerk scrambled
through the building trying to get
people out, Downey said.
The smoke was so thick, even
in the stairwells, that many
guests were afraid to leave their
rooms, witnesses said.
The fire alarm jolted awake
Donessa
Wilson
and her
boyfriend,
as they
slept in
their
fourth
floor
room.
“I
opened
the door,
and all we saw was smoke,” said
Wilson, who was staying near the
front of the motel, away from the
side where the fire started. ‘*i ran
back down to the other end of the
building, and it was just getting
worse.”
Wilson said she closed the
door and called the front desk
clerk who told the couple to es
cape down the front stairwell.
“We couldn’t see. There were
people falling all over each oth
er. We just kept going until we
saw some light.”
The smoky hallways and stair
wells were more dangerous than
the rooms, Downey said.
“If they would’ve stayed in
their rooms and put towels under
the doors... The people that came
out ot their rooms,
they didn’t have
much of a chance,”
the fire chief said.
“They get the
smoke filled in
there, and they
panic, and panic
takes over for
them.”
Emergency
workers remained
at the scene
throughout the morning as sleet
fell across the Upstate. The Red
Cross was helping the survivors
who were relocated to a motel
next door.
State Law Enforcement
Division and the federal Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms agents remained on the
scene to investigate the cause of
the blaze.
“We couldn’t see. There
were people falling ail
over each other. We just
kept going until we saw
some light.”
DONESSA WILSON
N.C. RESIDENT WHO WAS SLEEPLING ON THE
FOURTH FLOOR WHEN THE FIRE STARTED
Safety
CONTINUED FROM-PAGE 1
the Greek Village and the Colonial
Center area, and that group will
meet in the Strom Thurmond
Wellness and Fitness Center. A po
lice officer will accompany each
group.
McClendon said she hopes the
walk will make
students aware of
possible safety
problems on cam
pus.
“We’re hoping
that everyone will
look at areas of
campus with kind
of new eyes, be
cause you walk
the same paths everyday, and
you don’t really notice sometimes
what’s there, but we’re hoping
that people will be truly aware,
so that we’ll notice everything we
can,” she said.
There will also be an evening
shuttle promotion held on
Thursday to encourage students
fo ride the evening shuttle more
or to try itfor the first time.
“We’ve been kind of informed
that the more students that ride
the shuttle, the more routes there
will be, and the more availability
that these in turn will have; so
we’re hoping that more students
will ride it,” McClendon said.
Members of
the Safety
Board will be
on the shuttle
that evening,
and they will
be having give
aways to try to
get more peo
ple to ride.
Critical
Mass will be having its monthly
bike ride Friday at 5:30 p.m. The
group, which meets on the
Horseshoe the last Friday of ev
ery month, rides throughout
downtown for about an hour. The
/
purpose is to try to encourage
awareness of bicyclists and to
promote its goal of getting bike
lanes put in downtown.
“We’ll be riding around campus
and around town, and our ulti
mate goal is to make it so that we
would one day have bicycle lanes
to make it safer every day to ride
our bikes,” said McClendon, who
founded Critical Mass last year.
On Saturday the Safety Board
and S.H.A.R.E (Sexual Health
Awareness and Rape Education)
will be holding a self-defense
class in the Strom Thurmond
Wellness and Fitness Center
room 115 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. A
martial arts instructor will teach
the class. This event is the only
one in which spots are limited.
There are 20 spots open to the
public, and students who are in
terested can sign up at the front
desk in the SG Office on the sec
ond floor of the Russell House.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu
“We’re hoping that
everyone will look at
areas of campus with
kind of new eyes...”
KATIE MCCLENDON
STUDENT GOVERNMENT SAFETY DIRECTOR
Former top inspector in Iraq
says Saddam kept no weapons
BY KATHERINE PFLEGER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The former
top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq
said Sunday he believes Saddam
Hussein had no weapons of mass
destruction before the U.S.-led in
vasion of Iraq.
David Kay said the challenge
for the United States now is to fig
ure out why intelligence indicat
ed that the Iraqi president did
have them.
“We led this search to find the
truth, not to find the weapons. The
fact that we found so far the
weapons do not exist, we’ve got to
deal with that difference and un
derstand why,” Kay said Sunday
on the National Public Radio pro
gram “Weekend Edition.”
Asked whether he feels
President Bush owes the
American people an explanation
for starting the war on the basis
of apparently flawed intelligence,
Kay said: “I actually think the in
telligence community owes the
president rather than the presi
dent owing the American people.”
“You have to remember that
this view of Iraq was held during
the Clinton administration and
didn’t change in the Bush admin
istration. It is not a political ‘got
you’ issue. It is a serious issue of
how you could come to the con
clusion that is not matched by the
future.”
Since Kay’s resignation Friday
as the top U.S. weapons investiga
tor in Iraq, Kay has said Iraq had
no large-scale weapons production
program during the 1990s, after it
lost the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and
no large numbers of mass de
struction weapons were available
for “imminent action.”
Kay’s declaration that weapons
of mass destruction did not exist
before the war puts him in direct
contradiction with the official
Bush administration position. On
Saturday, President Bush’s
spokesman said the administra
tion stood by its assertions that
Iraq had banned weapons when
U.S. and British forces invaded
last March. The spokesman, Scott
McClellan, said it was only a mat
ter of time before inspectors find
them.
Secretary of State Colin Powell,
in contrast, held out the possibili
ty Saturday that prewar Iraq may
not have possessed such weapons.
“The answer to that question is,
we don’t know yet,” Powell told re
porters on a trip to Georgia. He
said U.S. officials had believed
Saddam had weapons prewar but
had unanswered questions.
Kay said he believes the
American public and politicians
now have to grapple with the ques
tion of whether the Iraqi dictator
posed an imminent threat. Given
the reality on the ground, as op
posed to estimates, some may
reach different conclusions than
they did before the war, he said.
“I must say I actually think Iraq
— what we learned during the in
spections — made Iraq a more
dangerous place potentially than
in fact we thought it was even be
fore the war,” Kay added.
CIA Director George Tenet re
placed Kay Friday with Charles *
Duelfer, the No. 2 weapons in- |
spector for the United Nations for
about seven years.
Kay said he left the position be
cause resources were being shifted
from the search for Iraq’s weapons
stockpiles to counterterrorism and
troop protection in Iraq.
Kay said he now is going to turn
his attention to weapons prolifer
ation issues and the recent lessons
learned.
In addition to Iraq, he pointed
out, the United States has been
surprised this year by nuclear pro
grams in Libya and Iran.
In Libya, he said, the surprise
has been the connections to
Pakistan and Malaysia, where he
said it appears plants were pro
ducing parts.
“It is in many ways the biggest 4
surprise of all, and it was missed,” "
Kay said. “We need to understand
our capabilities and what needs to
be done to make the nation bet
ter.”
14-year old female witness slain
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Police said a
14-year-old girl was shot to death
and her friend wounded after be
ing targeted because their as
sailant thought the slain girl had
witnessed a killing the day before.
Jahkema Hansen, 14, and an
unidentified 12-year-old girl were
found Friday evening in a town
house not far from the U.S.
Capitol.
Franklin Thompson, 22, was
arrested Saturday and charged
with first-degree murder in the
slaying.
The shooting of the two girls
was in an area where two men
were shot to death last Sunday.
Cmdr. Michael Anzallo, chief of
detectives for the District of
Columbia police, said the girl was
killed because her killer thought
she was a witness in the first of
two shootings in the same area
Sunday.
Police said they did not believe
the shooter was after the girl who
was wounded in the leg. The slain
girl was shot three times, includ
ing once in the head.
The girl’s mother, Judyann
Hansen, told The Washington Post
that police detectives had offered
her daughter protection in ex
change for information about that I
killing. *
She said police were clear about
the danger witnesses face.
FILE TObA\l
to run for President, Vice
President, Treasurer and
Student Senators
.
Monday, January 26
Tuesday, January 27
Senate Candidates: $5.oo
Executive Candidates $40.oo
Russell House 227* 9-bpm
Student Government Office
.tOtOuf.sy.se.
I ■
' v *
Gamecock
1 * jji|l
Baseball
Bash
When: January 31,2004
Where: Sarge Frye Field *
Q 1:15 pm. Scrimmage
© 3:45 pm. CWS Pennant Presentation
Q 3:50 pm. Bulls Eye Competition
Q) 4:05 pm. Celebrity Softball Contest
© 4:20 pm. Home Run Derby
© 4:45 pm. Autographs / Video Presentation
(which will be held at the Indoor Practice Facility) I
FREE FOR ALL STUDENTS
Come out and support your ranked Gamecocks!
Sponsored by the Student Gamecock Club