Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 1

FINAL ttztsm mmm WEATHER Forecast for Tucson: Windy showers; cooler temperatures. Temperatures Yesterday: HIGH 53 LOW 39 Year Ago: HIGH 72 LOW 19 U.S. WEATHER BUREAU VOL NO. 352 TEN CENTS An Independent NEWSpaper Printing The News Impartially TUCSON, ARIZONA, TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 19, 1967 THIRTY-SIX PAGES 622-5855 Enler4 lecorwl tun mtl Post OHirn. rKin.

Arizona Plane Plows Into Tucson Shopping Center alfo) ACRJ crP A fa) 2 Homes Razed A7 ,1 By Falling F4 Th deafens Near Airbase By KEN BURTON Fifteen persons were believed killed last nignt and at least a dozen injured when a U.S. Air Force F4D Navajos By HOWARD GRAVES WINDOW ROCK (AP) Air Force helicopters reached couple of small, isolated bands of snowbound Navajo Indians jet crashed into the rear of a Food Giant store at tne Cactus Shopping Center at E. 29th and S. Alvernon Way. Capt.

Ellis Franklin of the Tucson Fire Dept, said at press time this morning that he feared the death toll might reach 15. Eieht of the deaths were confirmed as still more Monday, but a new storm dimmed hopes of carrying immediate relief to thousands of others. Aircraft were grounded after only a few, brief aerial survey tiights. wtf- it wi n- 1 r-- ss.a hftin? removed from the cutted store and through Monday night and early (4 homes to the rear of the market. Tuesday, with continued freezing temperatures.

Nakai said about 60,000 of the tribe's 110,000 population were affected 'w the week-long storm that covered much of the square mile reservation with Two Navajo deaths blamed on exposure to the freezing cold a 2-year-old boy and a 60-year-old crippled sheepherder were confirmed and tribal officials said they feared for the safety of others. Navajo Tribal Chairman Raymond Nakai tried to reach Vice President Hubert Humphrey with a personal plea for more, and larger helicopters to help reach stranded livestock when the weather permits flights. About a doen helicopters and iii il in- nn -aini tC7 ,1,1 nm ith-tiiht- i immiIiMmi i ftr 1 a 11I i 4 v. 4 4 -1 1 j( I wn twi nitmiiiiuiijiiCT waifr-- rffrirniiirmiiwl several cargo transport airplanes already in the area were grounded by the new storm. The Weather Bureau said the reservation could expect increasing snows and wind snow drifting to depths of four feet and more.

He said an estimated 1 million head of sheep, cattle, horses and goats were caught in the storm, described by Nakai as the worst in the tribes' modern history. The tribal chairman used a Navajo radio broadcast Monday to tell his people of efforts to reach them. The tribal leader said the average Navajo family living in the Indian dwellings known as hogans on remote areas of the reservation usually build up a good supply of food and wood for heating fuel in early winter months. "The Navajo police are try ing to get into the critical areas such as Pinon and Forrest At last two houses to the rear ot the shopping center complex were also destroyed as a fireball of JP-4 aviation fuel engulfed the area, creating a holocaust. Air Force officers said the two-man crew, Flight A Red Cross plea for blood to aid the injured in last night's tragic air crash turned out so many Tucsonans that a traffic jam developed.

More than 100 persons swam-ped the blood center at 222 S. Cherry tying up traffic in the area from 9 p.m. on. Donors were still arriving as the Star went to press. Lt.

Jack R. Hamilton of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), the pilot, and U.S. Capt. Gary L. Hughes, the navigator, were able to parachute from the plane before it crashed Tim Oned, of 3810 E.

32nd was standing on S. Winstel Ave. when the plane hit the ground shortly after 5: 30 p.m. "I saw two planes heading north above me," said Oned. "They were flying side-by-side, when two objects shot out of the eastern aircraft I realized later these were parachutes." Witnesses, including Oned, said the aircraft then turned on its side and descended upside down.

Oned said when it hit, "It exploded like a bomb you see on television." Another witness, 15-year-old Roswell Burk, of 1802 S. Baxter said he was just blocks away from the supermarket when he saw the jet approaching. "When the plane came over, it tipped a little and it looked like a wing caught on one wall and it just blew up," Burk said, explaining how the craft slammed into an alley directly behind the store. The plane was loaded with more than 16,000 pounds of volatile JP-4 aviation fuel, which it had taken on prior to leaving Davis-Monthan AFB. The plane was based at Nellis AFB, Nev.

The fuel exploded across houses and ripped a fiery path through the grocery store, which was dotted with holiday shoppers and employes. Ernest Sanchez, a Tucson Gas Electric employe who was driving by the store when the crash occurred, stopped his car and ran inside to help men, women andchildrcn escape. Reports indicated that between 20 and .30 persons escaped before the fire completely engulfed the store's 75 Persons Snowed In At Lodge The vicious snarl of the winter's first major storm was still being heard in the Tucson area yesterday. Fifteen persons are snowbound for the seventh day this morning at the Mt. Lemmon Inn in the Santa Catalina Mountains, rescue workers are edging closer to a snowbound housewife at a lonely ranch house and the weatherman predicts more rain and snow for Lake," in the central reservation area, Nakai said.

Navajo Police Supt. Al Adams said the new storm that struck Monday could make things much more serious. "We may be going back to the beginning," he said. There still was no word about a band of pinon nut pickers in the Forrest Lake area northwest of Chinle, where earlier reports indicated about 150 Na-vajos were trapped last week. Navajo police were reluctant to confirm that figure Monday, but The stranded at the inn are Scene Of Pre-Christmas Tragedy Mr.

and Mrs. Tony Lebold and rear of the supermarket. Bright flame shooting above the wall to the left is burning gas from a ruptured gas line and flame in foreground is blazing jet fuel. Fifteen persons are believed to have perished. (Photos by Jack Sheaffer and Harry Lewis) The first city firemen to arrive at the Cactus Shopping Center E.

29th St. and S. Alvernon Way, battle to save adjoining businesses, top photo, as Food Giant No. 10, a Supermarket is engulfed by a fireball fed by volatile JP-4 fuel from a U.S. Air Force F4D that crashed at 5:38 p.m.

yesterday. Wreckage of the plane is framed by a patio wall at a home to the indicated the lack of communications made it difficult to say ju9t how many were in the band. The only ground access to the area is over snow-blocked wagon trails. One helicopter took food to 24 Navajos, most of them children, jammed into a hogan near the Wood Springs Trading Post about 60 Miles west of Window Rock the Navajo tribal headquarters village near Only Lucky Ones' Remember their two daughters, Mr. and Mrs.

George Sheldon and their two sons, Sgt. Al Larose, lodge owner Anita Green and her daughter and four men from Trico Electric Cooperative. Electricity has been out on the mountain since early Wednesday. Mrs. Lebold said they had enough wood for about two more days, but no milk.

The ranger station reported plenty of fuel, but not much food for the four adults and three children there. People are also believed stranded in middle Sabino, Marshall Gulch, Mt. Bigelow and the radar base. escaped med the door, and through another exil. the New Mexico border.

U.S. Public Health Service hospitals at Fort Defiance, Win-slow, Tuba City, Reams Canyon and Gallup were on emergency than runway in the light from inside. fire- Aby Mogy, a self-employed truck driver who runs Tony Dalla Visat, 26, of 1802 Mogy's Towing Service, was helping a stranded mo-S. Baxter PI. said the heat was torist some 300 yards from the supermarket when he so intense it could be felt clear saw piane fall, across Alvernon Blvd.

liceman running toward the front of the building get blown back when the windows explod- Two employees of the nearby Thunderbird Marine, II. A. Sea-monds and John J. Abbs, described the ball of flame as alert in case any Navajos were brought in for emergency James O. Palmer, 49, 3541 Monthan was waiting for his wife in the parking lot when he heard "a hell of an exploision." He saw people running from the store.

His wife Victoria was not among them. He waited in the car with his my baby, she's still in Uribe who lives 75 yards from the houses that were destroyed said, "I'll be moving out of the neighborhood, that's for sure." Mr. and Mrs. Warren Ben-ningtone ran from the "big ball of fire at the rear of the store," and made it out the front door with about ten other persons. Fred H.

Cirillo saw the crash from his service station across the street. He said he saw a po David Johnson of Madera Mogy said he heard "a thud," saw "not more than 20 people" run out, and immediately got on his two-way radio in his wrecker and called for the fire department. He was credited with the first alarm. Tribal officials said it was preparing more than 3,000 food packages for air drops. More resembling an A-Bomb blast.

I Canyon said he ran to the rear They agreed it was half a city of thc market' two houses in flames and heard a girl's block wide and rose more than Lmom J5 than 2,500 bales of hay were un Sfin fWt in the, air TW fnlH nun, but was a window loaded at Window Rock and Instant Sea Of Flame Recalled By Survivors By JOHN L. MAIIER When the Food Giant Market became an inferno of flaming jet fuel last night an estimated half a hundred home-bound shoppers were in the store, according to witnesses. Dazed survivors, the lucky ones, stumbled from the building. One a woman with her clothes on fire, was aided by Marty Hassett, 5426 E. Lee.

Hassett said he and another motorist wrapped the woman in a blanket and his suit coal to smother the flames. She was picked. up by ambulance minutes later. John B. LaDue, 4200 Benson 11 was inside the store.

The blast knocked him to his knees and as he went out the see two parachutes descending unable to get inside. Chinle for aerial drops to hun little dachshund for two hours before police took him home. Norma Rees, 4141 E. 29th St. was standing at the checkout counter.

She dropped to the floor when she heard the explosion which she thought was a More than 85 city firemen 50 regulars, plus J5 off-duty men called back to work responded to the three separate alarms that sent a total of 10 pieces of fire and rescue equipment to the tragedy. near the end of the Davis-Mon- gry livestock, which provide Pima County Sheriff's officers said a team of men composed mostly of Search and Rescue workers were continuing (heir climb up the reverse slope of the Santa Catalina mountains in their efforts to reach a stranded woman in her ranch home. The crew, using an Army surplus "Weasel" (a tracked personnel carrier) began their trek Sunday night, fighting six-foot snow drifts to get to the home of Mrs. Ralph Wheeler, 54. Mrs.

The hysterical father was in front of the house, according to Johnson. many Navajos with food, clothing and transportation. Nakai said one of the vice (Continued on 2A, col. 5) Firefighting teams also rushed to the blaze from Davis-Monthan and Air National Guard headquarters. Shortly after the crash, KEVT, the Spanish language D-M also sent several ambulances and teams of medics.

"Glass was flying everywhere," she said. "A man grabbed me and told me to get out of there, if he hadn't I'd probably still be there. station in Tucson was authorized to go on the air extralegally by Sorne 100 citv policemen and other officers from the city attorney's office in or- South Tucson, the Arizona Highway Patrol, thc Pima der to warn Spanish speaking County Sheriff's Office, plus Civil Defense teams, tho Wheeler lives 12 miles south of Oracle, on the north side if the persons to avoid the disaster Santa Catalina. She said the man who rescued today's News Index Arizona House approves 14-point tax program, 2A. Death toll in Ohio bridge collapse reaches 19.

SA. YMCA-YWCA drive officials named, Copper strike negotiations resume tomorrow in Douglas, 4. (ieorge Cornell's series on kinsmen of Jesus begins today. 8B. Ariznnan to be named Tucson water department director, 10A.

Pima County approves facelifting job for Old Tucson, 10C. Bridge 6B Financial 6-7C Pub. Rec 7C Comics 8-OC Horoscope 6A Radio-TV 9C Crossword fiB Mostly Hers UC Sports 1-3D Editorial SD Movlei SC Weathrr 8A Sheriff's Search Rescue. Unit and the Red Cross all rushed to the crash site. area.

The station had ended its regular broadcast day. front door he looked back on a I her was worried about a hand- The 10,000 square foot store "We've got every law enforcement and rescue and its stock and fixtures were agency in the city and county out. here fighting this valued at $150,000 when it was thing," said one city patrolman. "I don't think we've built in 1900. Tucson expects more showers today from a Pacific Coast cold front.

Tomorrow's rainfall probability will drop to ,10 per cent from today's 60 per rent. It will be cooler today with a high in the high 4(ls and (Continued on 2A, ml. 4) "ceiling of flame." LaDue said Sam Des Jardins, a meat cutter in the market was the luckiest man in the world. Sam had just gone into the walk-in cooler when the blast blew the door shut. He looked out on a "sea of flames," slam- ful of candv bars he hadn't paid for.

''Everything rocked like an earthquake," said J. Uribe who lives behind the store at 1842 S. Winstell. "It seemed like all the houses were on fire I heard a man yell, 'My baby, SHOPPING DAYS TO CHRISTMAS missea anyone. It was the fourth in a locally owned chain of 11 Food Giant Markets started in IWfi by Bill Sharp.

Residents in the block behind the market said it (Continued no IB).