Photo by Jan Bishop
Fire guts store
By DAN OSBORNE
Kansan Staff Writer
The Gambles Store at 930 Massachusetts Street was gutted by a fire Wednesday night about 10:15 p.m. that shot flames at least 50 feet into the air.
Assistant Fire Chief John Kasberger told the Kansan this morning that total damage to the Gambles store amounted to about $50,000.00. Both stores adjacent to Gambles, Audiotronics and H and H Furniture sustained smoke and water damage.
Kasberger said a final report on the cause of the fire would not be issued until late this afternoon.
Efforts to control the two hour blaze were hindered when
a Lawrence Fire Department snorkel truck had to be towed from the downtown fire station to the scene of the fire because of power train trouble.
Because of this fire fighting equipment being out of action, a snorkel truck from the Ottawa fire department was called in to aid the Lawrence Fire Department and arrived at the scene of the blaze at 11:15 p.m.
Another setback occurred midway through the fire when a supporting brace on a hook-and-ladder truck collapsed, causing firemen on the ladder to lose control of the hose.
Three firemen were treated at Lawrence Memorial Hospital for sprains and strains, a hospital spokesman said, but were released.
The two-hour fire required one aerial and four pumper trucks which used eight streams of water to control the blaze, Kasberger said.
This marks the second major fire in Lawrence in five days.
Weather
Clear to partly cloudy today through Friday. Locally dense fog extreme cast this forenoon. Variable mostly light easterly winds today. High upper 60s. Low tonight generally around 40. Precipitation probability today and tonight near zero per cent, Friday 10 per cent.
80th Year, No.115
Thursday, April 16, 1970
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Violence erupts at LHS
Violence erupted at Lawrence High School Wednesday morning.
Angry shouting and fighting broke out between black and white students, and Lawrence Police and Public Safety officers were called to the scene.
Twenty-eight students were injured, five seriously enough to require hospital treatment, before calm was restored around noon.
School officials gave no reason for the fights. Witnesses said clubs, chains and chemical mace were used in the various brawls in the cafeteria, the main hall in front of the office, and outside a classroom.
William Medley, principal, said eight students had been suspended and more suspensions were likely after an investigation of the disturbance.
Max Rife, assistant principal, said the trouble started at about 8:40 a.m., shortly before classes were to begin. Rife said about 70 whites gathered in the parking lot and about the same number of blacks
grouped in the Veterans' Park across the street from the school.
While school officials tried to disperse the two groups, the blacks walked into the cafeteria, with the white group following shortly after. A fight broke out between a black and white youth, and several scuffles followed.
Later, after milling around in front of the school office, a group of blacks tried to force their way into a classroom. A policeman tried to block their way, and another fight ensued.
Medley said classes would be conducted as usual today, with law enforcement officers present to prevent further trouble.
In an address over the school intercom system, Medley encouraged students who wanted an education to attend classes today. Only those students who felt they would face physical or verbal confrontations should not come, he said.
Course correction made
SPACE CENTER. Houston (UPI)—The Apollo 13 astronauts fired a precision rocket blast Wednesday night that successfully set them on a path for a Friday afternoon splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Officials discovered Wednesday the crippled Apollo 13 spaceship was slightly off course and would have missed earth—dooming the pilots to death in space.
The new crisis hit just as the fates seemed to be smiling on the beleaguered crew. A tropical storm which threatened their
See inside...
BSU paper rejected ... page 2
Anti-Douglas movement gains support ... page 3
Blackmun wins Kennedy endorsement ... page 6
Moratorium March in Kansas City ... page 18
The fateful moment came at 10:32 p.m. CST when spacecraft commander James A. Lovell reached out and punched a yellow button on a control panel. This fired up the engine of the lunar lander, Aquarius, which Apollo has used for three emergency maneuvers since an explosion crippled the command ship Monday.
splashdown area in the Pacific Ocean appeared to be taking another route, and the oxygen, water and electrical supplies aboard their spacecraft were holding up well.
Before the correction; the course Apollo 13 was following would have spun the astronauts out into space—past the earth—where they would have been doomed.
Lovell's companion Fred W. Haise stood at his own control panel in Aquarius during the crucial maneuver and John L. Swigert sat behind him on a make-shift jump seat.
"Thrust looks good," ground control confirmed just before the firing was completed.
"Nice work," controllers told the astronauts.
"Let's hope it was." Haise shot back.
Although the firing appeared right on target, considerable tracking and other checks were necessary before the exact new trajectory could be determined.
Christopher C. Kraft, deputy director of the manned spacecraft center, said an additional correction maneuver could be made if there was any need to true up the course of Apollo 13.
Ground controllers confirmed that the vital rocket burn slowed Apollo by 7.6 feet per second-or 5.032 m.p.h.
This was exactly what controllers wanted to drop the spacecraft down to make sure it would hit the earth's atmosphere and
(Continued on page 20)
UDK News Roundup
By United Press International
Court approves bikinis
MADRID—A Spanish civil court ruled Wednesday the publication of pictures in a magazine of women wearing bikinis is not cause to seize a magazine.
According to the court the magazine "El Pito" The Whistle was ordered seized March 20,1968, by the Information Ministry because it published several pictures of women wearing bikinis.
The editor of The Whistle was fined $243.
Slide crushes sanitarium
PASSY, France—An avalanche roared down a mountainside in the French Alps today and crushed the boys' ward of a tuberculosis sanitarium, burying 77 persons beneath hundreds of tons of snow.
Henry Courey, prefect of the department state of Haute Savoie, said five bodies had been dug from the snow and wreckage of the smashed sanitarium. He said five other persons were rescued but there was little hope for the 54 boys and 13 nurses buried by the snowslide.
Violence mars strikes
The last of 60,000 striking Detroit truck drivers returned to their rigs today but 75,000 other Teamsters across the nation carried on their wildcat strikes.
Violence marked some of the strikes.
One trucker reported he was kidnapped near Cleveland, Ohio, Wednesday and released with a warning not to return to his truck. Four shooting incidents were reported in Ohio and Michigan police investigated two more reports of sniping at trucks. There were no reports of injuries.