SUN
WARM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol.87 No.6
The University of Kansas—Lawrence Kansas
K.C. era jazz still invigorates
Mondav. August 30. 1976
See story page five
Sorrowful time
KU members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity spent much of yesterday helping their counterparts on the Baker University robotics team.
house in Baldwin City. Two of the KU members, Andrew Sleypen, Burlington freshman, left, and Dewey Domoney, Downs sophomore, leave the roped-off area outside the charred house.
Inquiry refutes charges of Med Center ineptitude
By JERRY SEIB
Staff Writer
A special Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) committee has cleared the University of Kansas Medical Center of many charges of inepititude recently leveled by Med Center employees.
In an interim report received this weekend by Chancellor Archie Dykes, the committee said a three-day visit to the Med Center "clearly exonerated the hospital of all charges made."
"The hospital was fully aware of the scattered, temporary, minor deviations and
Fire marshal says
By JIM COBB Staff Writer
Burned frat lacked adequate protection
BALDWIN CITY—The Kansas fire marshal said last night that Baker University's Kappa Sigma fraternity house, in which five men burned to death yester- apparently didn't even begin to comply" with state minimum fire standards.
the marshal, Floyd Dibbern of Topeka,
said the building lacked two exits from each
floor, didn't have enclosed, inside stairways
with fire doors and had no early-warning
heat or smoke detection system. Dibbern
said that if the building didn't have enclosed
stairways, it should at least have had a
warming system.
Baker is a United Methodist Church-affiliated university with an enrollment of about 850. Baldwin City is 16 miles south of Lawrence.
THE FIVE MEN were trapped in a third-floor sleeping area in the 59-year-old brick structure as flames engulfed an open, front stairway soon after 3 a.m. The stairway was the only means of escape from the third floor.
Missing and presumed dead are Ted Bailey, 19, Chicago junior, and Steve Hoge, 21, Shawnee Mission senior and the chapter president.
The Douglas County sheriff's department identified three of the dead as:
Stuart McCoy, 21, Overland Park junior; Mark Morris, 21, Lenessa, who graduated last spring; and David Sloop, 21, Independence, Kan., senior.
Memorial services for the死 will be at
a afterburner, Baldwin City's First
United Church of Christ.
Persons sleeping on the second floor of the house managed to escape down a back stairway or jump from the burning apartment and back stairs didn't extend to the third level.
According to Carroll Carlson, chief of the Baldwin City Volunteer Fire Department, state inspectors determined that the fire began in a ground-floor sofa, where sparks apparently had smouldered for about two hours. Carlson said the fire burned into the front staircase area where the open stairwell acted as a chimney.
VOLUNTEER FIREMEN, who fought the blaze for about five hours, said the bodies of the dead were charred beyond recoognition.
THE ONLY OTHER person on the third floor at the time, William Murphy, Overland Park, jumped from a window and was taken by ambulance to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. He later was transferred to St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas and was listed in fair condition with second degree burns and a broken ankle.
Dibbern, who said two state inspectors would continue investigating the fire this week, said he suspected the fire's cause was careless smoking around the first-floor sofa. He said that the local fire department was responsible for inspecting such problems and safety problems weren't corrected the state marshal should have been contacted.
Shock, sorrow felt in wake of fire
BY COURTNEY THOMPSON
Dave Sloop was secretary of the chapter and was assistant editor of the school paper,
BALDWIN CITY--Steve Hoge was to have begun his second term this fall as president of the Kappa Sigma fraternity of the University. Now he is missing and presumed dead.
Hoge and Sloop were two of five men who died in the raging fire that quickly swept through and destroyed the Kappa Sigma fraternity house here early yesterday.
BY LATE YESTERDAY morning, surviving fraternity brothers were basking through the wreckage. Most of them were shot and killed by one of the previous hours of fire and death.
He said that if the building had been on campus, it would have been inspected by the state. He said that, to the best of his ability, Sigma house had never been inspected.
Stuart McCoy, another victim of the fire, had been alone in his third-floor room. According to fraternity brothers, it was McCoy who turned in the alarm.
"I remember him yelling 'There's a fire' or 'Fire, fire,' " Gerald Wayland, Tulsa, said. "Anyway, that woke me up and I immediately smelled smoke. I opened my door and I found it filled hull. I tried to get to McCoy's room — not but I kept hearing him yellning."
Wyatt was responsible for alerting many of the approximately 30 active and alumni members of the fraternity in the house at the time of the fire.
"Those guys on the third story of the old part had no chance once the front stairs came down."
"I WOKE ABOUT five on the second floor, then I went downstairs and kept trying to yell at people to get out." Wyatt said. "It's hard to keep yelling when you're choking but I managed to keep banging on doors."
BUT JERALD Walker, Baker president, said he thought state officials inspected the city's schools.
"SO FAR I DON'T think the whole thing really hit me yet, but I know it's going to any time now. Last year most of us who are here today most are just tireded so we
Bill Sloop of Independence, Mo., was sloop among those who survived the 1926 bombing and hurricane.
stairway and that's where the fire went—right along where we'd painted." Jurney
Sloop's brother, Dave, was one of the five students who was killed in the fire. Dave was trapped on the third floor of the fraternity house, along with four other men. Bill was on the second floor and was able to jump from his bedroom window.
Bill Phillips, New Port RICHy, Fl., was one of four students who escaped by jumping from second-door windows. He said that he did not feel guilty either by the back stairs or by jumping.
"We'd just finished painting the halls and
Mark Morris, Overland Park, was also killed. He was an alumnus of Baker and has returned to the upcoming week of rush activities to visit friends.
"The new addition (built on the Kappasigma house) had to be approved in 1968 by the state marshal," he said. "The fire department was not oblivious to the existence of the house."
See SHOCK page five
See BURNED page six
★ ★
Bv MARY MYERS
Safety of KU houses attested to
An early-morning fire Sunday swept
Representatives of several KU fraternity and sorority houses say their houses comply with Lawrence Fire Department safety regulations.
Roy Gilliam, building inspector for the Lawrence Fire Department, agreed yesterday that regulations were met, and they will soon be used by CU houses remedied the situations quickly.
Greek houses are private residences and therefore are inspected by local fire departments rather than by the state fire marshal.
through the Kappa Sigma house at Baker University, Baldwin City, killing five members of the fraternity. The state fire marshal said yesterday that the fraternity house apparently didn't meet state fire regulations.
KALA STROUF, KU dean of women, said the university had been very careful about campus safety.
Dave Reese, a former president of the KU Kappa Sigma chapter, said the fire marshal had said KU's Kappa Sigma house complied with state regulations.
Fred McEhlenie, acting dean of men, said after the Baldwin city fire, "I hope that you will be safe."
The house's fire escapes lately have been blocked with boxes and old couches because of the return of fraternity members for the fall semester, he said.
they were responding promptly to correct them," the report said.
Satellite union report due soon
"I think they'll get cleaned out pretty soon," he said.
The KU Kappa Sigma house was partly destroyed by fire six years ago.
DAVE ANDREAS, president of Kappa Sigma, said he would ask Greek houses at KU and other Kappa Sigma chapters in the area for contributions to the Baker center.
By CAROL HOCHSCHEID
The final report of the satellite union facilities advisory committee will be submitted this week to CBSNews.org.
"IT APPEARS IT IS possible, with modifications, that these plans could be bid next year and come within the total authorized project cost," Wiechert said last week.
The analysis, conducted by a local contractor, appraised the cost of all items included in the blueprints for the satellite union to determine whether the structure could be built within its $2-$million budget.
Last Thursday, Allen Wiechert, associate director of the Office of Facilities Planning, reported to the advisory committee the findings of a construction cost analysis prepared this summer.
Steve Heeney, president of Phi Gamma Delta, said that in 1967, his house was burned until only a shell remained. Rebuilding took one and a half years, he said, and was done so that "it will never happen again."
Dykes gave permission to the Office of Facilities planning in May to make the analysis of existing architecture.
Kansas in 1968. The Kansas Union Memorial Corporation Board, acting on a recommendation from the Student Senate satellite union task force, then allocated $5,000 from its budget for the survey.
THROUGH STUDY of these plans, the contractor identified construction and finishing materials that could be modified to reduce expenses without impairing the building's function. Wiechert said.
Frank Burge, chairman of the advisory committee and Union director, said, "Last spring the question was whether the plan would be feasible."
A SIX-MEMBER HEW team made the unrequested, unannounced visit to the Med Center last week to investigate charges that the Med Center was understaffed and had
But he said that it became evident after some study that students thought the original plan could provide the services needed in a satellite union on the southwest part of the campus.
"We identified items that we didn't know what the oat would be, and the contractor offered some suggestions."
Last spring, students endorsed a referendum to
a satellite union backed by a maximum student fee of $15.
Teddie Tasheff, student body president, said the budget approved by student vote wouldn't permit the student to get a job.
The complaints were made by Med Center personnel to an interim legislative committee that visited the Med Center in late July.
This semester. $3 of each full-time student's fees will be used for architectural planning of the building. This semester.
A senate task force was appointed last spring to work with the facilities advisory committee to complete plan.
In its final report to the advisory committee, the task force placed priority on space for a bookstore, food services, lounge and meeting areas, postal and banking facilities, and a ticket sales center.
"THE SINGLE PURPOSE of the task force was to make sure students had input to tell us what services they needed."
Tasheff said she was confident Dykes would approve the submitted plans because of their "strong student support and input in addition to the professional planning of the facilities and Union management."
The house now has concrete brick walls, metal supports, asbestos-lined cattails, fireproof doors, fire doors that close automatically when attached smoke detectors are activated, enclosed stairways, fire detectors that close metal doors in the ventilation ducts, and alarms and sprinklers in the kitchen, he said.
The house doesn't have fire drills, and Henry said he doubted whether it would in.
M. Ellenbie said he thought all houses not required to have drills would now have power.
GILLIAM SAID the fire department didn't require that private residences have fire drills. He said that he thought drills should be held monthly, but that the department had no jurisdiction over private homes.
The Sigma Phi Epsilon house doesn't have fire drills either, according to Steve Seggegrech, chapter president. The house is relatively new compared with some of the older buildings in the department regulations. He said that the house was built mainly of stone, brick and
See SAFETY page six
Dykes said yesterday the favorable report meant the Med Center was in no danger of losing either its accreditation or any HEW funds.
The committee's full report should be completed in about two weeks, Dykes said, and it will be sent to members of the volunteer committee and other state officials.
Dykes said the visit by the HEW team was prompted by newspaper reports of the employees' charges of poor housekeeping; it was a bumpy but not surprised about the findings.
"WE WERE PLEASED to receive the report and glad to find that they have found no evidence to support allegations against them, by medical center employees," Dykes said.
HEW'S Bureau of Health Insurance
requests the investigation. If sent a state
See MED CENTER page two
Staff photo by DAVE REGIER
Step saver
Replacing the alumni seats in KU's Memorial Stadium Saturday, these men found a way to save some time, by taking other other in bucket bradge fashion.