Irving Daily News from Irving, Texas • Page 1

Arson sparks rising property losses By ANNE ELLIOTT Arson is on the rise in Texas, according to statistics unmasking an estimated $1.15 billion in annual fire losses and approximately 700 arson-related deaths nationwide. During 1977, there were about 923 fires of incendiary origin in Dallas, which wrought $5.9 million in losses. And arson generally goes unpunished. An average of only nine suspects are arrested for every 100 possible arson cases. Of these nine, an average of only two are convicted, and few are ever jailed, according to a recent study.

This year, for the first time, arson will be regarded by the FBI as a crime, which puts it on a level with murder and rape. finally realized that arson is an important enough crime to keep statistics said Asst. Fire Marshall Don McConaghie. McConaghie and Fire Marshall J.D. Mitchell are currently the only certified arson investigators at the Irving Fire ment, although a third investigator is soon to start.

To become an arson investigator, McConaghie said, one must be a state-certified fire investigator, a state-certified arson investigator and must pass the state-certified law enforcement training for police officers. best arson investigators have worked in the field as he said. have been to fires and have seen how they travel and how the intensity It takes years of training to walk into a burned building and be able to tell how it burned, he said, but with technology the fire department is able to do it. can take a totally burned building and determine by chemical analysis what set the McConaghie said. take a piece of charred wood and an example of what we think may have started the he said, the forensic lab in Dallas will tell us if it is the right chemical and if it tell us what the chemical A difficult problem in determining arson is that the arsonist is hardly ever seen setting the fire and leaves very little evidence, he said.

But with the forensic technology available, a container of flammable liquid can very often be traced back to its origin and eventually to the buyer. Investigators can pin down within a few feet the area in which the fire was ignited, McConaghie said. The depth of charring, the direction of the flames and a breakdown of melted glass or metal can determine the intensity of the fire and the direction it took, he said. Determining arson is a lot like criminal detection in the police department, according to McConaghie. The first step is to eliminate all natural causes, then to determine if the fire was accidental or deliberate, he said.

a lot of footwork. We interview everybody who can tell us if and when they may have seen a he said. to popular thought, not everything is destroyed by he said. fires leave an oily black residue on windows and doors, and fingerprints, which are greasy, can be burned permanently into a McConaghie and Mitchell are active members in several organizations against arson. AT AC (A Texas Advisory Committee) on Arson is an organization formed with help from the State Board of Insurance.

Insurance companies, ie said, are very concerned with the increase in incendiary fires because they stand to lose so much if the arsonist gets away. Another organization they work with is the International Association of Arson Investigators, in both the Texas and the international chapters. This group meets once or twice yearly to correlate information and discuss penalties, laws, detection methods and methods of arson, McConaghie said. have set up a direct communication warning system on known arsonists with any city in Texas or any other country involved with the he said. This means a fire department could be alerted if an arsonist arrived in town, and his background could be checked through the city he was previously in, he said.

McConaghie said arson often meant involvement in civil court law suits, as well as criminal ones, because of monetary claims. we can cut the profit out of arson, then we are doing some he said. I rving aily ews City With Future PHONE 254-6161 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 91 IRVING, TEXAS MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1979 1 SECTION DAIIY Townley appoints USD committee to cut back budget By JIM LECHTENBERG USD School Supt. Dr. John Townley has appointed a task force charged with finding ways to reduce the cost of the budget for the 1979-80 school year.

Townley said he is concerned the Irving school board will either be forced to cut the budget or increase the local tax rate because there will not be enough new state money to offset the rise in inflation. Budget Director J.C. Sheperd is the ex-officio chaijrman of the committee. He said the group has been meeting with department heads to examine which areas of their budget may be excised. About a third of the work has been completed, but Sheperd said he does not know exactly how much money has been cut.

He said also he does not have a target figure in mind. When the committee finishes its meetings, it will make recommendations to Townley prior to the compilation of the final draft of the proposed budget. USD board members will be presented the proposed budget in July. a tedious Sheperd said. making progress though.

Nobody wants to give up anything they have, but when they see the necessity, find ways to cut He said the committee may meet again after the board meets in July to study further possible cuts. Other members of the committee include Dr. Guy Harrison, assistant superintendent for instruction; Lynn Conner, director of personnel; Jack Singley, Houston Junior High School principal; Curtis Hines, Irving High School principal; Glenn Duggins, Barton Elementary School principal; Paul Barger, director of maintenance; and Roger Hill, president of the Irving school board. Buddy Byrd, business manager, will aid the committee. Four killed at Yello Belly strip What was supposed to be a fun-filled afternoon at the Yello Belly Drag Strip in east Grand Prairie Sunday, turned into tragedy when a drag racer moving in excess of 100 mph spun out of control and plowed into a group of spectators leaving four dead and six injured.

According to Dallas County Sheriffs deputy David Johnson, who was first on the scene, the 1967 Camaro driven by D.C. Thompson went out of control about 200 feet from the starting line about 6 p.m. and smashed into a group of about 100 spectators standing on the apron of the track. Johnson said the race car, nicknamed struck a spectator, sheering off his leg. The car turned after striking the four-foot cement retaining wall and blowing a tire and struck several more spectators before coming to rest about 100 feet short of the quarter-mile finish line.

The car skidded a total of 230 feet, Johnson said. The cement retaining wall was clearly marked spectators allowed on the I got there, there were three victims lying on the track stone Johnson said. A fourth victim was dead on arrival at Parkland Hospital. Listed as dead were brothers; Raymond Gorgonio Alaniz 13, and Francisco Alaniz, 17, both of Dallas; Charles Hightower, 30, of Dallas; and James Edward Henderson, about 35, of 2653 Ceder Crest in Dallas. Six others are listed in fair condition at Parkland.

Thompson was treated for minor lacerations of the left arm and is in fair condition at Parkland Hospital. Johnson said charges will probably not be filed against Thompson. Ralph Williams, an eyewitness to the accident, said the crash sounded like sticks of dynamite going off. looked like the driver was trying to control the car off the line. He swerved once, got it back, but when that slick (right rear tire) blew, he just spun around.

first guy he hit know what hit him. He was standing with his back to the car and just exploded when the car hit him. he hit two more guys, and one of them flew as high as that roof, Williams said pointing to a 20-foot metal roof over the grandstand. According to Williams, the spectators were warned repeatedly not to go onto the track. would get off the track and then they would hop back on after each race.

One time the guy that runs the lights (starting the race) ran down there and told them to get off the he said. The ill-fated race was the 71 st race to be run with only six more scheduled for the day, track officials said. The Yello Belly Drag strip is located in the far eastern portion of Grand Prairie at the Oak Cliff boundary. Irvingite recalls death scene ry When Irving drag racing enthusiast Jer- Issac Sunday saw a red Camaro heading toward a crowd of onlookers at Grand Yello Belly Drag Strip, he turned and ran. But the 15 year veteran racer will not soon forget the terrifying shreaks of those who could not escape the 100 mph path.

was screaming and bleeding he said, after the Camaro, dubbed scaled a small cement retaining wall killing four and injuring six others. Issac, 34, who had gone to the track to visit with his drag racing standing about 10 feet from where D.C. Camaro veered off the track and climbed the wall sideways around 6 p.m. all happened so he said, noting that it was impossible for many to escape the death path. And Iassac speculated at least one of the victims died during the 90 minutes it took ambulances to reach the scene a trip he said should have only taken 10 minutes.

pulled off my new T-shirt and used it to cover a guy who had been cut in he said, noting part of four boidies were scattered along the track. He remembered seeing a medic filing through the crowd during the 90 minute delay. he do very Issac recallled. is a bad track, it is mostly just asphalt. They need to close it down and put up some he said, adding he plans to restrict his racing to larger tracks.

Robin Stringfellow. Man dies in highway wreck A 59-year-old Irving man died Sunday when he lost control of his car and skidded into a concrete bridge abutment from the State Highway 114 exit onto Loop 12. Charles Duane Slater, 1105 N. was exiting northbound onto Loop 12 at 9:45 p.m. when his blue Mercury collided with the ment, causing massive head and chest injuries from the steering wheel and windshield.

The car apparentley skidded more 'than 43 feet before it smashed into the concrete, according to police reports. Slater was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital at 10:15 p.m. Funeral was pending this morning. Germs dominate lab By DEBBIE WORMSER Giant germs and six-foot petrie dishes are not limited to the realms of summertime horror movies. Art students at North Lake College are bringing them to life (so to speak) on the walls of one of newest businesses.

It all began when BBL Microbiology Systems plant manager Greg Roach decided his employes needed a cheerful respite from the unrelentingly white surroundings of the sterilized workrooms. So, administrative assistant Ann Spalding and Rachel McLoan, head of the art department, organized a design competition to decorate the rooms with microbiology-oriented murals. The students visited the microbiology labs and thumbed through science books to get ideas. The winning murals, by students Lana Gerath and Janet Kirkland, are being recreated on the 10- by 50-foot walls of two of BBL Microbiology rooms. North Lake students and company employes have worked on Ms.

mural for a week. Her design, which covers the back wall of the media compounding room, represents an conception of germs 50 feet of them. Although blue and yellow figure prominently, red domintes this mural. Ms. Spalding said the company chose this particular mural for the wall of the mixing room because much of the media (nutrient-filled gel for growing cultures) made there is red.

After creating the media, workers will sterilize the mixture in huge vats and pump it directly into the media fill room on the floor below. The mural for that wall features a modernistic design built around lab dishes. Ms. Spalding said 10 runner-up designs will hang as wall paintings throughout the plant. the workers will work in blinding white rooms and wear white gowns, hairnets and booties, we thought murals and paintings would perk things up a she said.

The company plans several future cooperative efforts with various North Lake departments, particularly in the sciences. North Lake artists put finishing touches to mural Student creations.