The Salt Lake Tribune from Salt Lake City, Utah • 27

LOCA News Desk: 237-2045 SUNDAY August 16 1992 Bl Hot Days Lead To Brownouts Electrical Fires Obsolete Materials Lack of Alarms Make Old Mobile Homes Firetraps 7 Install smoke detectors but not heat detectors Replace batteries twice yearly (Cost: $6 to $15) Enlarge the windows especially those in bedrooms to Pj allow alternative escape routes if door is impassable (Cost: approximately $100 per window) Install 12- to 3'8-inch gypsum wallboard (Sheetrock) beneath cabinets over the kitchen range (Cost: $3) Line the furnace and water-heater compartments with LJ gypsum wallboard (Cost: $12 for each compartment) By Lance Gudmundsen THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Thc Salt Lake Tribune (intptnc when a band of solder melts The melting point is 130 to 140 degrees but by that time it's often too late It was too late for the four girls described at their funeral as "little angels" Mr Workman was released last Sunday from University Hospital in Salt Lake City where he was treated for smoke inhalation and major burns The cause of the accidental fire was electrical says Brent Halli-day an investigator with the Utah State Fire Marshal's Office but he declines to give details The cause of a mobile-home fire in Taylorsville three months earlier is known: A little girl was playing with a lighter Amber Ward 21 rescued two of her three daughters Her husband and a 2-year-old girl were trapped in the inferno A neighbor said he watched helplessly as Anthony Kelly Ms Ward's common-law husband ran "back and forth" past a window screaming "Help! Help!" Mr Kelly's clothes were on fire The home didn't have a smoke detector "and if it did the detector wasn't working" says Gary Mudrock investigator with the Salt Lake County Fire Department Utah has roughly 50000 mobile homes either alone in a field as in Coalville or in mobile-home "communities" as in Taylorsville Edward Short of the Utah Department of Commerce mobile-home licensing section believes more than half of the state's mobile homes were built before 1970 when the state became involved in enforcing electrical plumbing and other construction standards Newer "manufactured homes" the phrase used to describe units built after June 1976 are solid and safe Mr Short says But many from the 1960s or early '70s are just plain hazardous Their aluminum siding galvanized roofs and small windows make them "little blast furnaces" "All the heat from a fire stays inside the home it hits the metal and bounces back" The heat eventually dissipates when the In the early morning of July 24 flames engulfed a Coalville mobile home Four little girls perished and their father was seriously injured A shocked community didn't celebrate Pioneer Day 1992 It mourned Three months earlier in Tay-lorsville Salt Lake County firefighters battled an inferno at another mobile home In that blaze a 2-year-old girl and her father perished The cause of one fire was electrical The cause of the other was a child playing with a cigarette lighter But there are similarities The mobile homes were built about 20 years ago had metal siding and galvanized roofing interior wood paneling and they lacked smoke detectors The Coalville trailer where Robert and Paula Workman lived with their four children ages 1 to 5 was equipped with a heat detector The devices sound an alarm sum board which is rated at 75 A final problem area involving older mobile homes and many conventional residences built about a quarter century ago is aluminum wiring In the late 1960s and early '70s the nation faced a copper shortage Many builders of mobile homes and conventional housing turned to aluminum as a substitute Mr Short said See B-2 Column 5 aluminum melts If living in a potential blast furnace isn't enough there's another inherent danger in mobile homes interior walls made of wood paneling Mr Short says inspectors use a flame index scale to measure the flammability of materials The higher the number the more quickly the fire races along a flammable surface Wood paneling is rated at 200 Newer homes are finished in gyp- Flora Benson Molded Hearts Shaped Her Family's Character By Vince Horiuchi THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Salt Lake County fire Capt Conrad Hintze took off his heavy firefighter's coat in the 98-degree heat Saturday and brushed the sweat off his burning face "We're just having a hell of a time keeping up with the demand in the heat" said the captain while at a fire call at the Holladay Library "The heat has taken its toll and this has been going on for several days" If the heat wasn't bad enough many Salt Lake County residents had to endure the high temperatures without power which meant without air conditioners A Utah Power substation near 7000 2000 East shut down about 12:30 pm Saturday when a loose power cable burned off at the connector according to UP spokesman David Meade "That caused the substation to shut down and trigger some other substations to shut down" said Mr Meade Like toppling dominoes other substations began to feel the added power demand much of it because people were using their air conditioners said officials "The individual feeder lines couldn't handle it so they shut down to protect themselves" he said Restaurants in Holladay could not serve food because of the power outage Light traffic problems erupted when stoplights went out Some areas near Holladay had a brownout when less than normal power was delivered Meanwhile firefighters like Capt Hintze were called to reports of small fires at businesses because of the brownout he said Air conditioners at the Cottonwood Mall and the Holladay and Whitmore libraries began to overheat when they could not handle the low voltage said the captain "Right now we're running like crazy" he said "We're very busy because of this situation" Several thousand homes in the Cottonwood Olympus Cove East Millcreek Midvale and Holladay areas were affected by the power outage Power was restored by 2:30 pm National Weather Service meteorologist William Alder said the Salt Lake City International Airport had a high temperature of 98 and a low of 69 for Saturday Salt Lake City has averaged 63 degrees higher than normal so far this month he said Other highs around the state included: St George 106 degrees: Zion National Park 103 degrees Hanksville 102 degrees Green River 101 degrees 98 degrees in Kanab Nephi and Brigham City and 96 degrees in Provo at Brigham Young University "The nights haven't been very cool either and that has what may have taxed the air conditioners" said Mr Alder Highs in the mid-90s will continue this week with lows about 70 A trough from the West Coast could lower the temperatures by the weekend said Mr Alder ft -Aft a -is'-': i mv: 4 By Lili Wright THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Whether teaching her son to box or scribbling notes to her husband on government policy Flora Smith Amussen Benson devoted her life to keeping her family together "She was absolutely the heart and soul of Ezra Taft Benson and their family" said Sheri Dew the Salt Lake City author who wrote a biography of the Mormon Church president "I cannot imagine the family would be as cohesive as this one without such a strong woman at the center" Mrs Benson 91 wife of the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints died of natural causes Friday evening at the Bensons' Salt Lake City home Mrs Benson is survived by six children 34 grandchildren and 51 great-grandchildren Memorial services will be noon Wednesday at Assembly Hall in Temple Square Salt Lake City As Mrs Benson's health waned last week family members gathered at her bedside to sing pray and recite poetry said grandson Steve Benson President Benson 93 held her hand for hours Friday night finally going to sleep at 9:30 pm She died two hours later "He was aware of what was going on" said Steve Benson 38 a cartoonist for The Arizona Republic "And I am told he is taking it well" The daughter of a successful Danish jeweler Mrs Benson was considered "a catch" during her years at what is now Utah State University according to Ms Dew Flora Benson believed "there is mighty power In a mother" She played on the tennis team performed Shakespeare and was elected student body vice president It was here she met President Benson an Idaho farm boy whom she married in 1926 President Benson's career in government and church affairs meant Mrs Benson spent many days alone Not one to complain she instead encouraged her husband to excel while contributing where she could "I cannot think of a sweeter companionship than President and Sister Benson had" said Barbara Smith former president of the Relief Society When President Benson served as Secretary to Agriculture in the See B-2 Column 4 Al HartmannThe Salt Lake Tribune COUNTING GUSSIED-UP SHEEP Mike Rostrom of Riverton lets out a yawn while he and his trusty sidekick Mitch wait for the Animal Dress Up Contest to begin at the Salt Lake County Fair on Saturday The six-day fair may have attracted as many as 160000 and although that's down about 20000 from years past a veteran fair organizer says it was still a big success See story on Page B-3 T77 Little Is Understood About Disorder Causing Victims to Overeat rj ri ri rn lv ciation said nobody knows if Prader-Willis eat because they're hungry or from compulsion Today even with second helpings Nick gets about half what the family's other children eat Still he weighs about the same as his 12-year-old sister Natalie "I'm glad I'm doing this today" Mrs Uzelac said as Nick sat quietly on the couch rubbing his stomach "I don't know how parents coped 20 years ago" Many of them didn't and their children ate themselves to death Today many more survive because they get the attention they need including a healthy amount of monitoring Mrs Ipson's 29-year-old daughter Kim lives in Ogden under 24-hour supervision with seven other members of Utah's only group home for Prader-Willis She once weighed 160 pounds and was near a heart attack She now is down to 115 pounds Her meals and those of other residents are carefully measured and prepared in a locked kitchen and passed to them through a security door See B-2 Column 5 hearts could handle They simply were too determined to have another bite "Doctors people who work with the disabled parents don't know how severe it is Kids are dying in the US every year from a lack of help" says Judith Ipson whose daughter has the condition Mrs Ipson and her husband Frank founded the Utah Prader-Willi Syndrome Association in 1984 Dr Dave Viskochil a University of Utah geneticist said Prader-Willi could be characterized as a lack of a thermostat to turn off a person's appetite That combines with learning disabilities and behavior problems Doctors Andre Prader Heinrich Willi and Alexis Labhart first described the birth defect in 1956 so identification and treatment of Prader-Willis has only come about in recent years "I don't know many older Prader-Willis" Dr Viskochil said Dr Viskochil said the real indicator is in the child's early history Prader-Willi children have little interest in food until age 2 or 3 Then metabolism and appetite change Gretchen Gogel assistant director of the 2000-member Prader-Willi Syndrome Asso By Jack Fenton THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Nick Uzelac is always hungry He's been known to eat an entire bowl of whipped cream or a slab of pizza he's stashed in a closet Eating has been the focal point of Nick's seven-year life He started gaining too much weight at about age 3 His parents Boyd and June Uzelac of Bountiful put him on diets But he keeps growing After the last Christmas holiday Nick weighed in at 80 pounds That was 20 pounds too much his doctors said recommending a stricter diet Since then he's gained 5 pounds His parents have locks on the kitchen cupboards to keep Nick out The refrigerator is locked too "I don't know what he'll be like at 19" Mrs Uzelac said Nick is one of an estimated 16700 Americans about 20 of them in Utah who have Prader-Willi Syndrome a genetic disorder characterized by an inability to stop eating poor muscle tone and a reluctance to exercise Historically those with Prader-Willi died young Their weight became more than their 1 AI Hartrntnii Thr Salt Lake Tribune Nick Uzelac eats diet pudding one of the few snacks his mother June allows Nick suffers from a disorder that affects appetite 2 UTAH QUOTES know now how a person feels when they win the California lottery I've had a long time to get ready Dallas Nickell after a suspect was arrested in the 1972 killing of his son Gregory "After I was rejected I said to heck with it The fact is parades are long hot and boring" Atty Gen Paul Van Dam on Days of '47 officials' refusal to let him ride in last month's Pioneer Day parade "Used to be the biggest problem in the county was a stray dog or family feud call Now we've got people shooting each other It makes you feel bad Washington County Commission Chairman Jerry Lewis on the spate of killings in Utah's Dixie In two months six people have died in shootings "We are doing the responsible thing If we prevent one sexually transmitted disease or one case of HIV that is important" Dr Thomas Evans director of the University of Utah's Health Science AIDS Center The has installed condom vending machines in some campus restrooms "Few if any improvements have been made to Derks in over 30 years and the city should embark as soon as possible to bring this facility into Rookie League compliance or build a new one From a report from the Major League Baseball commissioner's office about the condition of Derks Field "We're trying to educate her Bountiful resident Alice Webster so she can deal with the loss She's a real cat lover who believes she's doing the right thing for her cats Deanne Hess director of Davis County Animal Control after officials destroyed 147 cats removed from the Websters' home and garden shed.