THURSDAY, MARCH 6. 2003
NATION/WORLD
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • 11A
Foam might have contributed to fire
The Associated Press
WEST WARWICK, R.I. — A foam company salesman told the owners of The Station they should soundproof their nightclub with packaging foam, the highly flammable material investigators believe contributed to the inferno that killed 98 people, authorities say.
Newly released investigative documents contradict the man's previous account about the purchase of the egg crate-style packaging foam that covered the walls at the club, which burned to the ground Feb. 20.
The man, Barry Warner, said he approached the club shortly after brothers Jeffrey and Michael Derderian bought The Station in March 2000 to complain about noise. Warner lived behind the
building and, at the time, worked at American Foam Corp.
Once the Dderierians learned he worked for the foam company, they initiated the sale of the cheap, highly flammable polyurethane packaging material as soundproofing. Warner said Sunday.
However, he told investigators Feb. 23 that he told the Derderians about the packaging foam sold by his company, according to a police search warrant affidavit.
Warner, who no longer works for American Foam, said yesterday that the affidavit didn't accurately represent his conversation with state and federal investigators.
"There's a lot of inaccuracies," Warner said, decling further comment.
The soundproofing is considered a key part of the investigation into the fire, one of the deadliest nightclub blazes in U.S. history. State law bars highly flammable material from being used as soundproofing in clubs and bars.
The fire was sparked by the pytrotechnics display of the band Great White. Flames raced up the soundproofing behind and above the stage and ripped through the club. In addition to the dead, nearly 190 people were injured; 46 remained hospitalized yesterday with injuries including severe burns and seared lungs.
The band has insisted it had permission to use the special effects, a claim denied by the Derderians.
But officials are also investigating whether the foam should have been on the walls in the first place.
Michael Derdierian's attorney, Kathleen Hagerty, has said the brothers deferred to Warner as
the expert on a foam they believed to be appropriate soundproofing. American Foam owner Amar DerManouelian has said the club bought $575 worth of the foam in mid-2000 after asking for the "cheapest" material.
Experts say the light, porous polyurethane foam is 20 times more flammable than wood and burns like gasoline, emitting a dense, toxic smoke.
Town building and fire inspectors visited the nightclub at least four times over the past three years but never reported seeing the foam inside.
The search warrant affidavits also lay out details from the investigation of the West Warwick police and the Rhode Island Attorney General's office. They refer to the "egg crate foam" on the ceiling and walls.
Suicide bomber injures 55 in Israel
The Associated Press
HAIFA, Israel — A bomber blew himself up aboard a bus filled with students in this northern Israeli city yesterday, killing at least 16 people and injuring 55. The blast spread blood-splattered debris throughout a prosperous hilltop neighborhood, ending a two-month lull in suicide bombings.
Police identified the bomber as Mahmoud Hamdan Kawasme, 20, of the West Bank city of Hebron, and said he was carrying a letter praising the Sept. 11 attacks. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, and it was not known whether he was affiliated with a militant group.
The attack followed the establishment of a new hardline government in Israel and a
government pledge to step up military strikes against militant strongholds in the Gaza Strip. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in more than two weeks of raids, including at least 10 civilians.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an emergency meeting of senior Cabinet ministers late yesterday to discuss the bombing.
Bus No. 37 was packed with students from Haifa University when it stopped in the hilltop neighborhood of Carmelia at 2:17 p.m. to let off passengers.
The explosion blew off the bus roof, shattered all its windows and toppled nearby palm trees. Floodlights cast an eerie glow on the scene, illuminating the charred skeleton of the vehicle.
The bomb was laden with metal shrapnel for greater deadliness, according to Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki. Crime lab technicians were investigating, but early reports said the blast was caused by 130 pounds of explosives.
Rescue workers and police said they believed one of the 16 dead was the bomber. Dozens were seriously injured, among them passers-by.
Ovadia Saar, who was driving a bus behind the one that was attacked, said he saw "the back of the bus fly into the air, and the windows blew out and a great cloud of dust covered the bus."
"I got out and ran toward the bus. It was a horrible sight. There were a few bodies in the street," he said. "Those we saw breathing, we evacuated."
"We will not stop our resistance," he said. "We are not going to give up in the face of the daily killing" of Palestinians.
A spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, praised the bombing but did not claim responsibility.
Some Palestinians in Gaza called each other on cell phones, spreading news about the Haifa attack. Some were jubilant.
"It's about time. They've kept on hitting us and killing us, and now we've struck back," said an ice cream vendor in Gaza, who refused to give his name.
The Haifa blast was the first terror attack in Israel since Jan. 5, when a pair of suicide bombers killed 23 people in Tel Aviv.
There have been 87 suicide attacks in Israel in 29 months of violence that has left2,160 people dead on the Palestinian side and 743 on the Israeli side. The violence ended talks on a final peace settlement and helped Sharon win re-election.
Columbia hearing to commence today
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — After a month out of public view, NASA's space shuttle program manager will be back in the spotlight today as a witness at the first public hearing held by the Columbia accident investigation board.
Ron Dittemore was the face and voice of NASA in the week following the shuttle's breakup over Texas, describing the tragic events and their aftermath at daily news conferences at Johnson Space Center. That role ended when the investigation board took over.
Today, Dittemore will be back answering questions, this time from board members instead of reporters.
It is the first in an onslaught of public hearings planned by the board's chairman, Harold Gehman Jr., a retired Navy admiral who led the investigation into the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. He said he would hold hearings twice a week, every two out of three weeks, for the foreseeable future.
Even Gehman's own staff is surprised at the frequency.
"He wants his process to be open to the public," explained the Federal Aviation Administration's Laura Brown, the board's spokeswoman.
Astronaut Scott Altman, the commander of Columbia's next-to-last mission who is taking part in the investigation on NASA's behalf, reacted with a "wow" to the heavy schedule.
He said he is all for making the hearings open to the public, especially in space towns like Houston, Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Huntsville, Ala. That is where most of the hearings will be held.
The only risk, he said, is invit
ing the public could make the board feel more rushed to come up with answers, which might turn out to be the wrong ones.
"You don't want to be distracted by giving a public pitch and by doing PowerPoint charts when you want to be finding out what went wrong," he said.
The board suspects Columbia's left wing was breached, possibly by foam, ice or other debris that broke off from the shuttle's big external fuel tank during liftoff Jan. 16, and the hot gases of re-entry seeped inside 16 days later. All seven astronauts were killed.
Today's hearing will be held in a 500-seat theater at the University of Houston at Clear Lake, just a few miles from Johnson Space Center.
During his last news conference on Feb. 7, Dittemore pledged "unwavener support" to the board. "If there's anything they need, we will provide it," he said.
Gehman refused to say whether Dittemore was among the top-level shuttle managers that he requested be removed from the Columbia investigation because of a conflict of interest. NASA chief Sean O'Keefe has publicly contradicted Dittemore's contention that even if the space agency had known about the severity of damage to the thermal tiles on Columbia's wing, there is nothing anyone could have done about it.
Besides Dittemore, who has headed the shuttle program since 1999, Gehman plans to call as witnesses today the Johnson Space Center director, the former director of NASA's Ames Research Center, and a Boeing engineer who is an expert on the foam that insulates the external fuel tank.
V
Dr. Kevin Lenason, O.D., P.A.
Optometrist & Associates
935 Iowa *838-3200
$99 Eye Exam & Disposable Contact
Price includes: Eye exam, contact lens fitting, two follow up visits,
& two 6-packs of 2-week disposable contacts of doctor's choice.
Does NOT include color, toric, or bifocal lenses.
Not valid with insurance or any other offers. Exp. 3/25/03
Join students, faculty, politicians, community leaders,and KU administrators for the First Annual Graduate and Professional Association Diversity Issues Summit-an open meeting to discuss the current status of diversity at KU and to strategize for change.
Saturday, March 8, 2003 from 10am-2pm in the Multicultural Resource Center.
For more information contact James Owen, Executive Director of GPA at 864-4914, at gpa@ku.edu, or visit the GPA office located at 426 Kansas Union.
Reserved seat tickets are on sale through the KU ticket offices: University Theatre, 804.3982; Lied Center, 804 ARTS; SUA Office, 804.7499; and online at www.kutheatre.com: public: $14 & $12, all students: $10, senior citizens: $13 & $11; VISA and MosterCard are accepted for phone and on-line orders.
The Royal Family is an Associate Entry in the 2003 Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival XXXV
The University Theater is partially funded by the KU Student Senate Activity Fee
1
1