The Danville Register from Danville, Virginia • Page 3

VIRGINIA Efforts To Conserve Energy Bring Inexpensive 'Hothouse 9 RICHMOND (AP)-A fire that resulted in the deaths of three Henrico County children early Saturday morning prob- ably was started by a cigarette, officials said. Capt. R. E. Manoley.

the county's chief fire inspector, and Del. C. L. Harver, who aided in the investigation, said the signs all point to a cigarette as the cause of the blaze. "It will he impossible to re- solve whether the fire started from the fireplace or a ciga- rette because of the conditions in that area, Manoley said Monday.

"But in all probability it was a cigarette." The fire took. the lives of Scott C. Robinson, 10. and his sisters Stacy 4, and Shawn 7 months. Another daughter, Susan.

13. was listed in satisfactory condi- tion Monday with burns over 20 per cent of her body at the Medical College of Virginia Hospital's i Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Rob- inson, the childrens' parents, weren't home at the time of the fire.

They had gone to a restau- rant with a friend while Susan babysat with the younger chil- dren, Manoley said. Manoley said Susan smelled smoke and started downstairs with the other children they were hit by flames. Susan dropped the baby and ran out- side, he said, but the other chil- dren ran upstairs and hid under the bed. They died of smoke in- halation. Funeral services were sched- uled for Monday afternoon.

Va. (AP)--Colonial Williamsburg. spurred on by the energy short- age, celebrated'Christmas Eve in a msnner much like the city's first recorded Christmas tree celebration. The city eliminated electric lights and had hoped to illumi- nate a large Norway spruce in the center of the historic area with several dozen small bees- wax candles. However, there was too much wind and only one symbolic candle was briefly lit.

Williamsburg's first known Christmas tree celebration took place in 1842, when Dr. Charles Minnigerode, a professor at the College of William and Mary, introduced Judge Nathaniel Be- verly Tucker and his children to the Christmas customs of Minnigerode's native Germany. Neighborhood children report- edly gathered around Min- nigerode's tree on Christmas eve to sing carols and enjoy climbed over the fence and were starting on the second one, the first guard fired four more shots, this time aiming at the inmates, he said. But- the four men made it over and dashed into the woods. COLONIAL HEIGHTS (AP)- For Mrs.

Margaret Myers of New York City, Santa Claus was to arrive by jet from Vir- ginia, only she didn't know that. LUKTON (API Four in- mates who fled from the Lorton Mrs. Myers' daughter-in-law, youth complex early Monday Yvonne Myers, planned to ar- by scrambling over two barbed- rive at LaGuardia Airport in wire fences as.guards fired sev- New York on Christmas Eve eral shots at them were recap- dressed as Santa, with a bag- tured about seven hours of candy and other goodies, authorities said. The elder Mrs. Myers lives The inmates, who weren't hit across from the airport.

by any of the bullets, were first As another part of the sur- spotted about 7:15 a.m. by a Fairfax County policeman, who ran after them along Rich- mond, Fredericksburg Poto- mac railroad tracks near Poh- ick Estates. With the help of other police- men who rused to the area, the officer captured two of the in- mates, identified as Ricky Lewis, 20. serving an armed robbery sentence, and Joseph Frederick, 21, convicted of blurglary and grand larceny. Lorton.

guards closed in on the area and captured the other two inmates minutes later. They were identified as Mi- chael Sweet, 18, and Eldr-idge Simms, 17, both serving sen- tences for armed robbery. Fairfax County police and Lorton guards had begun searching the area after the 12:30 a.m. escape. Lorton Fletcher said a guard in Tower No.

2 at the Youth Complex spotted the inmates walking toward the first of two 12-foot fences short- ly after midnight and shouted RICHMjOND (AP)-A Rich- mond man's efforts to conserve energy have resulted in a bonus an inexpensive, all-weather hothouse for his plants. Richard H. Parker said he screened in his patio this past spring and then got the idea of guarding against a possible cold winter and possible lack of heating oil by enclosing the porch in plastic. "It was an inexpensive and easy project to do," he said. Parker bought a 100-foot role of six-foot-wide building plastic, available at most hardware stores for $6 or $7, and stapled it horizontally around the porch, anchoring it with wood strips.

The idea of wrapping the porch in plastic "snowballed," and Parker decided to. add plastic coverings to three small downstairs windows and his nine-foot picture window, he, said, adding that he still has a lot left over from the roll of plastic. "The northwest corner of the house, where the living room is the coldest spot in the house is completely sealed off from the cold," he said. Parker then noticed that the morning sun beaming down on the porch's plastic covering was raising the temperature on the porch to 70, 80 and even an occasional 90 degrees. "I open up the sliding doors leading to the den to let the heat into the rest of the tri-lev- el house, and sometimes even have to crack the outside door for ventilation or it gets too un- comfortable." he said.

Parker said he keeps his thermostat turned back to 65 degrees during the day "with the furnace rarely coming on" and is still verv comfortable. The Register: Donville, Tuesdoy. Dec. 25, 1973 3-A Arlington Hospital To Move Into New Wing Wednesday ARLINGTON (API-Arling- ton Hospital is to Wednesday into its new $12.5 million, four-story wing, in- creasing its capacity from 261 to 325 beds. The move comes at a time when the Northern Virginia Comprehensive Health Plan- ning Council is discouraging new hospitals, but John An- derson, hospital administrator, says he anticipates no problems making the addition pay for it- self.

"We're not actually adding a new facility" but updating an old one, Anderson said. "The old Arlinbton Hospital was real- ly obsolete, if you will. We had one bathroom facility on each floor and everyone lined up." Anderson said the hospital will need an 85 per cent occu- pancy rate to pay off the $12.5 million debt, up from the 79 per cent recorded in 1971 and 1973. Last year's rate was 75.7 per cent. Anderson said he was con- fident the hospital would at- tract patients now that "con- struction turmoil" has ceased.

More than SI million has been raised in gifts, Anderson said. By the end of the week, the new wing's emergency, in- tensive care, pathology and X- ray units will be in operation, he said, as well as adminis- trative offices and food serv- ices. A 25-bed alcohol detoxif- ication center and "extended care" beds for patients who don't need the acute care of the hospital's main wing will be lo- cated in the old section, Ander- son said. Negotiations arc still under way for financing a 25-bed psy- chiatric treatment center in the old wing, he said. The health planning counciL finished a study in September which indicated that Northern Virginia now has 2,374 hospital beds and that another 740 are planned, not County Arlington Hospital's.

"Current needs are pretty close to current available beds," Council chaiman Ed- ward Kelly said recently. "If these (740 beds) are built, we'll have a surplus well into the 80S." prise, Mrs. Myers' son, Ed- ward, left the couple's home in Colonial Heights. Monday morning with a truckload of gifts. He was to join 10 brothers and sisters at his mother's house for a Christmas family "reunion.

for them to stop. Instead, they ran to the fence and began to climb over, he said. The guard fired one warn- ing shot and a guard in Tower No. 1 on the other side fired two warning shots. Fletcher said.

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