April 28, 1985 ' c si ? WEA THER__ three days. SYNOPSIS: The Pacitic storm track lies from the central Washington coast then through Southern 8.C. Surges of moisture will move along this storm track at irregular intervals over the next two or f=] fe) Le] BRIEFLY VEHICLE DEFECTS NANAIMO (CP) — Nearly one of every five vehicles stopped during a 41-hour roadblock check in Nanaimo and Parksville was defective, say RCMP officials. Police said a total of 5,778 vehicles were stopped Tuesday and Wednesday and that 1,080 had defects, including mechanical problems, broken tail lights and defective brakes. Police blame the problem on the economic which is ing less on automobile repairs, and the closure of pr By CasNews Staff Castlegar RCMP will be cracking down on impaired drivers and people not wear- ing seatbelts next month as part of a province-wide Coun- terAttack Campaign. Constable Terry Link said the RCMP will be doing road checks from May 620 to check for people who drink and drive as well as to enforce requirements to wear seatbelts. Link noted that last year, 227 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents in B.C. between May and Aug- ust — more than double that of the period of November through February. More than one third of these acci- dents were alcohol related, he says. Link added that the cam- paign will continue after May 20, but roadchecks will not be as frequent. COMINCO STRIKE VOTE THIS WEEK VANCOUVER (CP) — Cominco Ltd: workers in Trail and Kimberley will hold a strike vote next week fol- lowing their union's rejection Wednesday of a company proposal for a two-year wage freeze. “They (Cominco negotiat- ors) are out to lunch,” said motor vehicle testing stations. An RCMP spokesman said 369 tickets and 52 written warnings were issued. There were also four arrests, including one in which a person was picked up on a warrant for armed robbery. POSSIBLE ARSON YALE (CP) — Arson is suspected in a fire Friday that destroyed a landmark in this Fraser Canyon community. The On Lee House, a provincial government heritage building, burned to the ground in a fire that Len Brenner, former Yale fire chief, said has been reported as arson. “The house hadn't been lived in for years,” said Brenner, who filed the report. “There was no hydro connected. It had to be arson.” The On Lee House was built in the 1880s, and was purchased by the provincial government in the 1970s with the intention of restoring it. It had not yet been restored, said Marion Jang, a grand-daughter of the original owners. REAGAN WILL MEET ROME (REUTER) — President Ronald Reagan has told two European newspapers he is willing to meet Mikhail Gorbachev in September during the Soviet leader's visit to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In an interview published Saturday, Reagan told the Italian financial newspaper Il Sole-24 Ore: “I am certainly willing to do it. I have expressed the conviction that we must meet and Gorbachev, in his responding letter, said he shared my point of view.” RIOTS KILL 26 JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Thousands of blacks thronged to two mass funerals Saturday for 26 victims of racial rioting, and speakers pleaded with them to stop venting their hatred of white-minority rule on fellow blacks. Police said four blacks, including a 12-year-old girl, died in new incidents of violence Friday and Saturday. Meanwhile, two South African companies said Saturday they were firing more than 15,000 black miners after weeks of tension over pay rates. The Anglo American Corp. said it, was firing 13,000 men from its Vaal Reefs gold mine — the world’s largest — 150 kilometres from Johannesburg, fur staging illegal strikes Friday and again on turday. At neighboring Hartebeesfontein mine, 2,000 men were fired this weekend about striking, a spokesman for Anglovaal Mining Co. said. POLL RESULTS NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are almost evenly divided on whether President Ronald Reagan should have agreed to visit a German military cemetery, but a majority believe he should cancel the visit, a ig toa N ine poll released Saturday. In a cross-country telephone survey of 633 adults, 40 per cent said Reagan was right in agreeing to visit the cemetery at Bitburg, where Nazi SS soldiers are among those buried, while 42 per cent said he was wrong. Eighteen per cent had no opinion. Asked if Reagan should still visit the graveyard in light of the controversy that has arisen over the trip, 55 per cent said no and 36 per cent said yes. Nine per cent had no opinion. - in connection cident. Ken i of the 8,600-member Local 480 of the United Steelworkers of America. “Cominco just has no idea of what our needs are at all. Our membership considers this offer to be an insult.” The current agreement expires April 30. Local 480 members earn an average of $13.50 an hour at the lead- workers at Cominco’s Koot- enay operations wouldn't re- ceive a wage increase until mid-1987. Six cost-of-living adjustments based on infla tion in the second and third years would kick in during the final year. Cominco negotiator Dunc Wilkins said his company can't afford wage increases until 1987 because of the col. Layoffs lapse of international metal markets. “We told the union that the reason for the offer is that the Trail and Kimberley operations have lost money over the past three years and in the first quarter of this year. We're looking at our position in Trail and Kim- berley from the point of view of survival.” Wilkins declined to com ment on whether the prop- osal is a final offer but said he hopes contract talks will re- sume soon. Georgetti said he also wants negotiations to resume quickly but added that the union won't submit a counter- proposal “until Cominco comes in with an offer that's within our ballpark.” The union leader said his local hasn't made specific wage demands. “We've told the company that we wanted a two-year agreement with money — a_ reasonable amount of money in the first year and a_ reasonable amount in the second. It's a very meek and mild package we've been seeking. We haven't had a wage increase since 1982.” a brain drain — D'Arcy D’Arey asked Energy Min- ister Stephen Rogers in the legislature if the government would ask B.C. Hydro to find new industrial uses of hydro- electricity and gases to avoid letting highly-trained people go. Rogers replied no such move is being made, and said the Crown corporation is not going to keep staff that it doesn't need. Hydro is down from the peak of employment now that the Revelstoke dam project is nearing completion, he said. Chester Johnson, acting chairman of B.C. Hydro, an nounced a planned reorgani Police file A boy received minor in RCMP. No charges are being laid with the in IN HOSPITAL FIRE BUENOS AIRES (CP) — Barred windows, locked doors and patients heavily.sedated or tied to their beds contributed to the heavy death toll in the tragic fire at a private psychiatric hospital in Buenos Aires, rescuers and officials said Saturday. At least 61 people, and possibly as many as 78, died in Friday night's blaze which ripped through the modern, six- storey Saint Emillon Neuropsychiatric Institute in suburban Saavedra. Offi- cials said almost 200 others were injured and that several may die. The state-run Telam news agency, quoting unidentified sources, said a kitehen worker told authorities that the fire had been started by a patient with a history of pyromania who tried to commit suicide by setting fire to his Police refused to confirm the ret by a spok at police headquarter said “we have not ruled out the pooaib- ility that it was started by a patient.” One police spokesman said 78 people died and 192 were injured, but des. eribed the casualty figures as confused. Other police and judicial officials put the death toll at 61. “It was like Dante's Inferno,” said one witness to the fire, believed to be the worst in Argentine history. “We could hear voices coming from the smoke calling on God to save them.” Rescue workers said they were hampered because some patients were Death toll tied to their beds or under sedation and most windows were barred. Nearby residents who joined rescue efforts said some doors were locked and had to be broken down. They also said many of the patients were panic stricken and some fought free of their rescuers to flee of the supposed security of their burning wards. “The building has all hays character- isties of a jail, ine win- dows, and not of a ‘tlinie for the mentally ill,” said Lorenzo Pepe, a member of parliament. He said he would seek a congressional investi gation of the tragedy. The fire burned for three hours before it was brought under control by seven fire companies shortly before midnight Friday night. Hundreds of relatives of patients gathered outside the hospital in north- eastern Buenos Aires for news or to identify the dead. But many of the bodies were burned beyond recogni- tion. Witnesses said one of the victims was a nurse who jumped from the fifth floor holding on to a mattress in a futile attempt to break her fall. FEEDS FIRE Witnesses said passers-by joined in the rescue efforts, breaking down doors to bring out many patients and staff members. Local news agencies said the fire rises spread rapidly, fed by bedding and foam padding, burning most strongly in the upper floors. They said most vietims were elderly women. Two police helicopters shone spot lights on the building to aid firemen, but were unable to pull patients from the blaze because of the heat and smoke. All available ambulances in the capital were called to the hospital to ferry the injured and take survivors to safety. “This is a terrible disaster,” Muni- cipal Health Secretary Teodoro Puga told reporters on the scene as firemen searched through the smouldering rubble for more bodies and clues to what might have caused the fire. “T've never seen anything like this. There are no words jo describe it,” one fireman said as he came out of the remains of the building, his face black ened by smoke. TIED TO BEDS “They're there, all of them, charred, in rows on the skeletons of their metal beds,” a rescue worker added. “Many of them were tied to their beds,” the worker said. “The smoke was terrible because some rooms were padded with rubber foam.” Hospital employees said many pati. ents, including many elderly people, were already asleep when the fire broke out. Some were heavily sedated or tied to their beds. Sea search continues VICTORIA (CP) — The search resumed Saturday for skipper Leonard Egolf, who was still missing after his fishboat Pacific Traveller rolled in Queen Charlotte Sound Thursday night during a storm which sank four boats and killed two men. Eighteen men were plucked by heli- copter from the sea or the decks of their sinking vessels in Thursday's storm. The two dead men have been identified as Neil Swan and Pierre MeVie, believed to be from the Ucluelet area. Another fisherman recovering in hospital in Bella Bella Saturday, can thank his survival suit 16F Reepitig him alive after he spent 12 how chilly waters where waves rose up to 10 metres and winds reached 65 knots. Randy Morrison, 34, who was on the Pacific Traveller, is in stable i ocher said Morrison was aware his skipper was still missing. The 12.8-metre Pacific Traveller, as a combination gillnetter-troller, is licensed to fish salmon and halibut. The boat rolled in the waves but air trapped inside saved her from sinking. The wreckage of the vessel was being towed to Shearwater near Bella Bella early Saturday. The four vessels which sank Thurs- day were the Bethune, the Dee Jay, the Godstadt and the Gibson. Meanwhile, Bert Ogden, the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union's safety officer, said Friday his union "Waits KiioOw Why the entire halibut fishing fleet in Hecate Strait was caught by the storm, which started Thursday morning. “I think what happened is they found in the ion similar to in hospital after his rescue Friday morning off Price Island. Dr. William Durocher said Morrison is conscious but exhausted, and that the survival suit saved his life. Dur. the one they found themselves in last October and last May,” Ogden said. A Pacific storm in October 1984 killed five fishermen off V: casts before the storm were criticized by the fishermen’s union. Coast Guard spokesman Wally Manz said Friday there was plenty of warn. ing of the storm in the forecast issued Wednesday and early Thursday. Ogden said he suspects halibut fish- ermen, attempting to catch their quota during the short 10-day April opening for halibut fishing, did not learn soon enough of the approaching storm. “The whole fleet was caught out there.” Ogden said the lack of safety regu lations requiring boats to carry life- boats and other life preserving equip- ment and the shortage of Coast Guard reséué “Squipient, which made nec essary the aid of U.S. Coast Guard and commercial aircraft, are other long standing union complaints. Manz said rescue efforts were seve rely hampered by the weather. Heli- copters from the U.S. Coast Guard were involved in the rescues as well as Canadian Coast Guard and civilian chartered s and Canadian Island, and inaccurate weather fore- military fixed-wing aircraft. VIETNAM —— continued trom front page However, he avoided draft dodging by opting for a two-year stint in the U.S. Peace Corps, teaching science in British Honduras..When Woodward returned, he was 26 — the cut-off date for draft registrants. He later married a Canadian, and they decided to move to the West Kootenay 14 years ago. Woodward uve mes wi ttracted by the prospect of a rural lifestyle, fed up with U.S. politics and Vietnam.” Swine he avoided being sent to Vietnam, Woodward was indirectly hurt by the war. “I had a cousin killed there, and two guys in high school whom I played sports with who were killed on patrol.” And Woodward says he has friends who were phy and psych ded by the war. “You can't talk to anyone in the States who doesn't know somebody who wasn't blown away or seriously damaged because of Vietnam.” Men weren't the only ones who moved to Canada because of the anti-war movement. Laura Tiberti of Winlaw followed her husband to Vancouver from San Francisco after he became fed up with the Vietnam war in 1972. “I was married to a fellow at the time who was in the reserves,” she said. “He went to boot camp and said, ‘No, this is enough,’ and came to Canada.” While Tiberti remembers the anti-war demonstra tions which took place while she was living in the Bay area of San Francisco, she didn’t take part. “I sort of just kind of felt like it was a men’s trip. (That) the men caused the war. They had to go. They had to get killed . . . It was a male orientated thing.” Bob Innwood of Winlaw as an American going to university in San Jose in 1968. He wasn’t called up for the draft because a “lottery system” of calling up recruits, based on arbitrarily chosen birth dates, placed Innwood low on the list. Innwood — a building designer who co-urdinated the heritage revitalization program in Nelson — remembers taking part in anti-Vietnam war marches. He was in a mass protest rally in San Francisco in 1968, which attracted more than 250,000 marchers. “It moved all over the city,” said Innwood. “At one point it was at the Golden Gate Park.” The march ended up at a large stadium with speeches and performances by the reigning San Francisco rock bands of the time: The Grateful Dead and The Jefferson Airplane. Although the cause was serious, spirits were high, and Innwood said many were there just to “lend their bodies to the issue” and join in the fun. “It was a party-like atmosphere,” he said CHRIS D'ARCY . ‘very disturbed zation would mean hundreds of employees losing their jobs. In the year ended March 31, about 1,000 em ployees had already been laid off by Hydro. “As much effort as possible has been made to find other work for those people,” Rog. ers said. B.C. Hydro has a placement bureau to help laid-off workers find other jobs. That is not good enough, D'Arcy told reporters out side the legislature. “These people are emin ently employable, but they'll likely be employed in other parts of Canada or other parts of the owrld,” he said "m very disturbed that these are the people that are going to leave the province, and when we need that kind of expertise to move the economy in B.C., we won't have them any more.” ited crowd of about 200 came to Parliament Hill Saturday to express support for the peace camp protesters whose tent was dismantled. signatures for petitions for nuclear $300 and seven days in jail for driving while prohibited last week in Castlegar pro vineial court. . to 30 days in jail after plead- ing guilty to impaired driv ing. 200 flock to help peace camp protestors OTTAWA (CP) — A spir- take the camp's place on the Hill Monday, said Walker Jones of the Ottawa Dis armament Coalition, which represents about 30 peace groups. “Mulroney and LaSalle will find they have a bit off more than they can chew,” she said. “They were dealing with a handful of people when they dismantled the peace camp. Now they are dealing with hundreds of people.” Public Works Minister Roch LaSalle, before having the camp dismantled Mon. day, had said the protesters lacked support. But Jim Stark of Operation Dismantle, which has chal- lenged Canadian tests of the U.S. cruise missile in court, A peace table to gather disarmament will Court news Robert Higgins was fined Gary Jones was sentenced Vickers now in pledged his group would back the camp. And Michael Cassidy, New Democrat MP for Ottawa Centre, said he would help staff the peace table. The peace campers are suing the government for $1,500 “for destroying our shelter,” said Eibie Weizfeld of Toronto, the main force behind the camp since it was set up two years ago. They have also asked the Federal Court of Canada for an injunction restraining the government from further ac tion against the camp. Yvon Dube of Chicoutimi, Que., arrested for the fourth time this week early Sat urday, asked people to come back and spend the night on the Hill. dispute CRANBROOK Vancouver (CP) lawyer Vickérs will arbitrate a dis walk off the job for 17 days at week. Union, returned to work last Thursday Viekers is begin work in late May. Part of his job will be to determine the fate of two mine employ ees who were fired and two others who were suspended by Westar during the walk out David pute that saw 1,000 miners Westar Mining's Balmer coal mine in southeastern British Columbia, Westar said this The workers, members of the United Mine Workers expected to WEST KOOTENAY TRADE FAIR ‘85