The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 14

BZ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW aho SPOKANE CHRONICLE Friday, April 5. 1991, Spokane, Wash. CONTINUED: FROM B1 Fires Families Act bill apparently dead Spokane's. Hansen said that whenever signs of a high-temperature accelerant are seen, firefighters should get out of the building and stay off the roof until the accelerant bums itself out. Video of some of the fires shows white-hot flames, explosions like fireworks and thick black or gray smoke that seems to be pumped out of buildings.

Temperatures reach 2,800 degrees, about 1,000 degrees hotter than would be expected. Fire investigators have found cast-iron radiators and steel materials melted, and concrete so badly damaged it can be broken apart by hand. Suspicions about the fires led firefighters to test high-tech fuels in a practice bum in March 1990 at a Puyallup building scheduled for demolition. The fire burned with the similar traits, confirming the theory of a high-temperature accelerant. The exact fuel has not been identified because all residues were consumed in the high heat.

The Seattle fires are the fatal Blackstock fire in 1989, the Maritime Building fire on Feb. 17, 1989, Carpet Exchange fire on Jan. 17, 1984, and Victory Bumpers fire on Nov. 30, 1985. The Yakima fires burned the Hansen Fruit warehouse on May 2, 1984, the Artificial Ice warehouse on Sept.

16, 1983, and the Northwest Produce warehouse on Jan. 27, 1981. Also listed are fires that burned the Cal-Wood warehouse in Yolo City, on May 23, 1 985; a vacant res- taurant in Del Ray Beach, on June 18, 1988; an eight-story apartment building in Winnipeg in January 1990, and the Landmark Building in Bellingham on March 25, 1984. Regional Digest FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS Study says wood stoves source of most pollution YAKIMA Wood stove emissions produce about 90 percent of the air pollution problems in the Yakima Valley during the winter, the U.S. Forest Service said in a study released Thursday.

And 16 to 21 percent of the wood comes from the nearby portion of the Wenatchee National Forest, the report said. The study was demanded by environmentalists who sued the federal government, contending that cheap Firewood contributes to air lution in the Yakima Valley. A citizens group called Clean Air Yakima filed the suit. The group includes repiratory therapists, parents and people with breathing problems, said Andy Stahl of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, which handled the case. The study found that air quality in the Yakima Valley typically fails to meet U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency standards for airborne particles several times during the winter. Clean Air Yakima contended that Forest Service charges of $5 for a permit to cut a cord of Firewood were below market price and encouraged use of wood stoves. More than 3,000 people purchased woodcutting permits from the Naches Ranger District in 1989 and 600 people commented during the assessment period. Of those, only a handful favored stopping the wood permit sales. More airmen expected home today Twenty-four Washington National Guard airmen are due to return today from duty in the Persian Gulf, the Washington State Military Department said.

The group was to arrive at Fairchild Air Force Base on an air-refueling tanker, the department said in a statement. The Guard members are assigned to the 141st Air Refueling Wing operations staff, the 116th Air Refueling Squadron and the 141st Combined Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. The returnees will be welcomed home by their families, the Guard's 560th Air Force Band and Brig. Gen. Dennis Hague, wing commander, the statement said.

After arrival, the Guard members will be on military leave for a few days before returning to duty status. Their date of release from active duty is not known. on that fire, he said. We havent found anything to substantiate that Seattle investigators, however, say the severe structural damage caused in the first nine minutes of the fire and the difficulty extinguishing the flames make it likely that a high-temperature accelerant was used. An exotic mixture of chemicals also is believed to have caused Fires in Florida, California and Canada, investigators said.

No arrests have been made in the cases. Seattle Fire Marshal Bob Hansen would not discuss the other arson investigations at a news conference Thursday. However, he said he believes the people setting the fires are professionals, getting paid for the work. The arsonists probably had been trained in using the extremely flammable chemicals, either in college, the military or even in a Fire department, Hansen said. Investigators have no suspects in the Fires, said Seattle Fire Chief Claude Harris.

The research by the Seattle Fire Department with other agencies and laboratories probably will lead to other fires being identified as being caused by high-temperature accelerants, Harris said. There probably are more of them than we know about, he said. One of the Seattle Fires, at the Blackstock Lumber Building on Sept. 9, 1989, killed Fire Lt. Matthew Johnson when he became trapped inside.

The Seattle Fire Department has prepared training information and a video on fighting high-temperature fires for other departments, including Banned mandatory overtime in companies with more than 100 workers. Firefighters, law-enforcement officers and other emergency workers would have been exempted from the ban. Voluntary overtime would have been permitted. Expanded family-leave law to companies with 50 or more employees. Current law allows working parents in companies with 100 or more employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave every two years to care for new or terminally ill children.

The proposed legislation also would have allowed workers to take family-leave time to care for seriously ill children, spouses or parents. In other developments: HEALTH CARE. Spokane Sen. Jim West quashed a controversial plan to finance disability care Thursday, claiming the scheme would run huge deficits. Officials of the state Department of Social and Health Services, which opposed the measure, told lawmakers that revenues from a proposed payroll tax would fall at least $247 million short of the programs costs annually.

They said the gap could run as high as $1.1 billion a year. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Braddock, D-Bellingham, would have levied a payroll tax to cover the cost of caring for physically and mentally disabled people. Parents also would have had to help pay for care of their disabled children. Retirees and parents of the disabled strongly supported the bill.

But West refused to bring the mea sure, which had already passed the House of Representatives, to a vote in the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee, which he chairs. Stiff and wire reports OLYMPIA The Foundation for Families Act isnt getting off the ground floor in the Washington Legislature. The five-part bill to increase the LEGISLATURE states minimum wage, ban mandatory overtime, expand state family-leave law and toughen child-labor laws wont make it out of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, its chairman said Thursday. Sen. Jim Matson, R-Selah, said the bill, HB147I, is filled with too many hotly debated issues to make it through the Legislature this year.

Some people call it an omnibus bill. I call it ominous, Matson said. Theres an awful lot of work to be done on it. At this point we dont have much choice not to vote on the package. Friday is the last day for bills to make it out of committee or they die.

Democrats, labor unions and blue-collar workers strongly pushed the plan during two hours of testimony before Matsons committee Thursday and throughout the session. But lobbying by big business, including the likes of Boeing, Scott Paper Co. and Kentucky Fried Chicken, won the battle against the bill. Republican leaders also frowned on the plan, calling it another example of government regulation. The House voted 55-43 to approve the plan in mid-March.

The plan would have: Increased the states minimum wage to $4.75 an hour on July 1 and to $5.25 on Jan. 1, 1992. House will vote again on bill to ban hanging NOTICE SPOKANE CITY COUNCIL HEARING ON 1991 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES PROJECTED USE OF FUNDS MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1991 7:00 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS MUNICIPAL BUILDING W. 808 SPOKANE FALLS BLVD.

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON The City Council has set April 15, 1991 for a public hearing on the 1991 Proposed Statement of Objectives Projected Use of Funds (Application) for $3,274,000 in Community Development Block Grant Funds. The City Council will take testimony from citizens interested in commenting on the 1991 Community Development Application. Anyone desiring further information may contact the Community Economic Development Department, Room 250 Municipal Building, 456-4380. Six killed in DC-3 crash onto lake SMITHERS, British Columbia Six people died Thursday when a DC-3 made a forced landing on a frozen lake in northern British Columbia, police said. One person survived.

The plane went down on Thutade Lake about 250 miles northwest of here. The injured survivor was taken to a hospital, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. J. Hess said in a statement. Smithers is about 120 miles east of the Alaska border.

Those aboard the plane were not immediately identified. The plane, owned by Central Mountain Air of Smithers, had been flying from Sturdee Valley to Smithers and was reported overdue Thursday afternoon. Two commercial planes and two military aircraft began a search and found it on the fake, said Peter Byrnes, director of marketing for Central Mountain Air. It was found on the ice at the lake, he said. We sent out a medivac team from Smithers.

This is a remote location. We do not have radio contact. lion takes a while to get back here. Byrnes could not say why those aboard the plane had been in the Sturdee Valley. Smithers is about 400 miles northwest of Vancouver.

By Jennifer DuBois Sttff writer A bill to make lethal injection Washingtons only method of execution will have another chance today when a House committee takes its second vote on the measure. The House Judiciary Committee voted 7-12 to defeat HB1055 shortly after the session opened in January. Opponents said they were concerned any change in the capital punishment law could result in further delays for those facing execution. Washington has nine death-row inmates. One of them, Charles Campbell, sentenced to death in 1982, has delayed his execution with a number of appeals.

The Senate version of the bill breezed through that house last month, passing by a 44-2 vote. Larry Kincheloe, director of the state's Division of Prisons, said he thinks the votes are there to pass it in the House this time around. Since we took the first vote in the House committee there have been some changes. We think weve cleared up all the questions, he said. The bill, introduced by request of the Department of Corrections, would remove hanging as a method of The law currently gives those on death row a choice between hanging and lethal injection.

One of Campbells appeals was based on the argu ment that choosing ones execution method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Committee chairman Rep. Marlin Appelwick, D-Seattle, who sponsored the bill, said so far the votes appear to be split along party lines. Rep. Mike Padden, R-Spokane, who voted against the measure last time, said he has not changed his mind.

He said he still has concerns over potential appeals by those on death row. But I think its still very close, he said. Spokane Republican Todd Mielke said he is undecided about how he will vote. I told the Department of Correc tions I wouldnt be their deciding not to count me as a yes vote. He said he was not sure further delays could be prevented with or without a change in the law.

Since 1986, Washington has been the only state that could use the gallows to execute its condemned. The last execution in the state was in 1963. a Cominco quiet for two.days after add spilled into river LADIES DAY WED. All Lodlei rocelvi 10 discounts every Wednesday through the month of April. Does not apply to solo items.

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With heavy spring runoff in the river, Dill said he would expect the acid to be so diluted that it would not be harmful. However, he was surprised to learn that a border testing station registered an increase of acidity within several hours of the accidental releases. The pH changed at Waneta from 7.5 to 7.2. Thats a significant change, he said. We could have a flush of dead Fish come down that river, and we are going to get calls from our citizens down here wondering why.

Carl Johnson of BC Environment disagreed that the increased acidity posed a threat to wildlife. Its not at the level that were going to kill Fish, but its enough to be concerned about, said Johnson of the agencys Waste Management Branch in Nelson. Johnson blamed Cominco for the reporting delay. It was reported to us the afternoon of the following day. That was an error in judgment on the part of the company, he said.

It should have been reported the evening By Julie Titone Staff writer Fifteen tons of phosphoric acid was spilled by a Canadian industry into the Columbia River on Tuesday afternoon, but was not reported to U.S. officials downstream until Thursday morning. The delay has angered Washington state officials, who have been urging Canadian officials to notify them promptly of such pollution. Jeff Dill of the Department of Ecology in Spokane said Thursday he didnt understand the delay when a similar March 48 accident involving sulfuric acid was promptly reported. I dont see a big difference between 18 tons of sulfuric acid and 15 tons of phosphoric acid, said Dill.

Both acids were released trom the Cominco Ltd. complex in Trail, British Columbia, some 15 miles from the international border. The latest incident involved discharges of phosphoric acid at 4 and 6 p.m. Tuesday from Comincos phosphate fertilizer plant. According to a report from Environment Canada, a federal agency, an equipment malfunction caused the acid to overflow emergency containment vessels, enter GET QUICK SPRING GREEN UP WITH ULTRAGREEN LAWN FOOD CONTAINS TIME RELEASE NITROGEN FOR EXTENDED FEEDING COVERS 4,000 SQ.FT.

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