Banner Graphic, Volume 13, Number 103, Greencastle, Putnam County, 7 January 1983 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, January 7,1983

Gasolinestorage tank explosion rocks Newark

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Gasoline from a ruptured storage tank gushed “like Niagara Falls” before erupting early today in a windowshattering explosion that killed one man, injured at least 23 others and sent flames hundreds of feet into the sky. The fuel "went through the holes ... it was spilling out like Niagara Falls,” said George Gray, one witness. "We all saw the gas. That’s when we decided to run.” Moments later, the fuel exploded in a blast felt up to 75 miles away. Flames reached 200 feet to 300 feet into the sky and the fire was so intense that firefighters were forced back from the burning tanks and had to wait for the blaze to burn itself out. Newark Fire Director John Caufield said three gasoline tanks holding a total of 450,000 barrels of the fuel were still burning more than four hours after the 12:15 a.m. explosion. A barrel is 42 gallons. A man’s badly burned body, which was not immediately identified, was found several hundred feet from the burning tanks, Caulfield said. Another man was missing, he said. “It looks like devastation. There’s many buildings in there that have been very heavily damaged, some automobiles that are completely demolished,” Caufield said. Police said there were about 40 railroad tank cars within 100 feet of the blazing storage tanks, but Caufield said the fire “is not going anyplace.” He said it would burn for several hours. Tom Norwood, a spokesman for Texaco in Houston, said the

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facility is a sales terminal where tanker trucks load with gasoline and diesel fuel to make deliveries to service stations. The terminal is in a heavily industrial area about five miles from New York City across the mouth of the Hudson River with few residences nearby. The concussion from the blast was felt in Mount Sinai, N.Y., about 75 miles from Newark, police said. In Greenwich, Conn., about 50 miles away, police said they received 300 calls within 20 minutes of the explosion. Shock waves from the blast blew out windows in the downtown shopping district of Jersey City, about four miles from the fuel facility, and set off some burglar alarms. Sgt. Neill Flynn said three people were arrested in downtown Jersey City after police received reports of looting. Two people, including a 3-year-old boy, were treated for cuts sustained when windows shattered, said Joan Cleary of the Jersey City Medical Center. Twenty-one other people were injured at the terminal. Two of them were hospitalized in stable condition, one for head lacerations and one for smoke inhalation. Martin Domsky, city editor of the Wichita, Kan., EagleBeacon, vacationing in Bayonne, about three miles from Newark, said dozens of windows were broken in the twostory brick house he was in. “Flames were shooting a thousand feet or more in the air,” said Domsky. “It lasted close to a minute or two. In Bayonne, dozens of windows were broken and alarms were set off by the broken windows.”

Banner-Graphic "It Waves For All" USPS 142-020) Consolidation of The Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald Tha Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5151 Published daily except Sundays and holidays by LuMar Newspapers. Inc. at 100 North Jackson St.. Greencastle. Indiana 46135. Entered in the Post Office at Greencastle, Indiana, as 2nd class mail matter under Act of March 7,1878. Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier *I.OO Per Month, by motor route *4.55 Mail Subscription Rates R.R. In Rest of Rest of Putnam County Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months ‘13.80 *14.15 ‘17.25 6 Months ‘27.60 ‘28.30 ‘34.50 1 Year ‘55.20 *56.60 *69.00 Mail subscriptions payable in advance . . . not accepted in town and where motor route service is available. Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspeper.

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Leapin' lizards, what are they doing to Annie? No, Daddy Warbucks (played by Harve Presnell) hasn't flipped his wig, he's just flipped Alyson Kirk, Broadway's last Annie, after the final performance of the musical Sunday. ''Annie'' ran for 2,377 shows, making it seventh on Broadway's longest-running show list. The final cast also included Edwin Bordo as Drake the butler and June Havoc as Miss Hannigan. (AP Wirephoto).

Non-aggression pact dismissed

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Reagan administration has dismissed a Soviet bloc proposal for a non-aggression pact, but officials say they would give it serious thought if it was part of an arms control package. Keeping a promise with the NATO allies, the administration intends to take up the proposal with them. But officials here detect no shift in Soviet policy. “The Soviets are obligated under the U.N. charter not to attack people,” said one official. “To reaffirm that while they are occupying Afghanistan and doing other bad things won't assure anyone except those already willing to look at their activities benignly.”

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However, he and other officials, who asked not to be identified, said a mutual renunciation of aggression by the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization could reduce tensions if it were part of a larger agreement to reduce nuclear weapons. “It would be seen as an atmospheric improvement,” an official said. The proposal was adopted this week by the Soviet Union and its six East European allies at a summit meeting in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It urged NATO to join in renouncing the use of military force and to outlaw or limit arms ranging from neutron weapons to lethal chemicals.

Troops on military alert after San Salvador mutiny

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) A top military commander has mutinied over an order sending him to a diplomatic post and is demanding the resignation of Defense Minister Jose Guillermo Garcia, a spokesman for the officer said today. The troops of Col. Sigifredo Ochoa Perez, commander of operations against leftist guerrillas in the northern province of Cabanas, have been placed on full alert, the spokesman said. There was no immediate comment from ranking government officials in the capital. San Salvador was quiet early today and there were no reports of any violence anywhere else in this Central American nation.

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Swarm of earthquakes rock California area

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) The ground still trembled under this mountain resort early today after two sharp quakes caused power outages and fear in a region where residents had been warned of a possible volcanic eruption. Hundreds of quakes, felt across a wide area of central California, began at 4:26 pm. Thursday with two sharp tremors and aftershocks continuing at a rate of at least 50 an hour. They continued early today, but slackened “in frequency and magnitude, maybe 25 or so an hour now,” said Don Finley, spokesman for the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center at Golden, Colo. No injuries and little damage were reported from the quakes, but they triggered alarm in a restaurant and prompted some resort guests to leave the area, authorities said. The eastern Sierra region is 200 miles east of San Francisco. Preliminary measurements of the quakes ranged up to 5.6 on

Natural gas prices set to soar?

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department, revising an earlier forecast, now says natural gas prices will rise even faster for the rest of the winter than it had anticipated. In its latest “Short-Term Energy Outlook,” the department predicted Thursday that homeow ners’ bills would rise by 25 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year. The DOE forecast an average price of $6.17 per thousand

President Reagan said at a news conference Wednesday night the proposal deserved consideration and that it would be taken up with all the West European allies. But the State Department on Thursday said it “does not seem to represent anything new.” Spokesman John Hughes said if the Soviets wanted to convince the West of peaceful intentions, they could “react very swiftly” to existing U.S. proposals. Privately, officials called the move by the Warsaw Pact propaganda that could actually harm Western interests if it were given serious consideration. “If we actually sat down and negotiated the document we

There was no indication that any other military commanders were joining Ochoa. Reached by The Associated Press at Ochoa’s headquarters in Sesuntepeque, 60 miles northeast of the capital, the spokesman said: “The officers and troops of Military Zone No. 2 have disobeyed the order issued by Mr. Defense Minister.” The spokesman, who refused to identify himself, added: “We have asked for his (Garcia’s) removal. We appeal to the commander general of the armed forces, the president of the republic ... to replace him for the good of the armed institutions and their better control.” The colonel's spokesman charged that the transfer order,

Soviet troops to staff missile sites?

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. intelligence specialists are studying reports suggesting that Soviet troops may operate long-range SAM-5 anti-aircraft missiles likely to be installed soon in Syria. This could create a new and dangerous crisis if the Israelis should kill Soviet soldiers in air strikes at such missile sites, the specialists believe. The intelligence analysts,

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the Richter scale of ground motion. The strongest quakes could be felt 100 miles to the west in the San Joaquin Valley cities of Fresno and Merced and 150 miles southwest in Bakersfield, authorities said. Tremors were also felt at Yosemite National Park headquarters to the north of Mammoth Lakes. Mammoth Lakes Inn desk clerk Renee Xavier said Thursday’s quakes were “very sharp. People are scared. We even had a couple of checkouts.” “We had a couple of pretty good jolts,” said Don Austin,

cubic feet it projected in a late September estimate. DOE officials said the revisions were made because recent data shows gas prices going up more quickly than expected. Consumer groups said the new figures prove there are serious distortions in the market caused by the failure of interstate pipeline companies to bargain effectively for new supplies.

would be suggesting there is some utility in having such an agreement, ” said an official. He said the U.N. charter prohibits aggression, while the NATO countries pledged last year in Bonn. West Germany, that it would never use weapons except in response to aggression. The Soviets first proposed a non-aggression agreement in 1958. Last year, they also promised not to use nuclear weapons first and invited the United States to join in the renunciation. While brushing aside the nonaggression proposal, the administration is intentionally keeping open the possibility of a summit meeting.

appointing Ochoa military attache to the Salvadoran Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, was “not an isolated action” but part of an effort to get rid of the Cabanas commander. A National Public Radio reporter based in San Salvador reported that Ochoa said in a telephone interview that he considered the transfer a “form of diplomatic exile” and a “matter of professional jealousy” between himself and Garcia. Knowledgeable sources, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said Ochoa received the transfer order Thursday night and placed his troops “in a state of emergency” a few hours later. Garcia and Ochoa are known to have been at odds for some years.

who refuse to be identified, say it does not appear likely that the Israeli air force will attempt to knock out the missile sites before they become operational. However, American official believe the Israelis eventually will attack the SAM-5 sites because they will represent a serious new danger to Israeli air superiority. While declining to identify the

manager of the Gateway Market. “Things are off in the aisle ... Maybe a couple hundred dollars worth of damage, broken bottles and cans in the aisle, but nothing major.” “People are shaken up really badly,” January Silverstom, an employee at the Chart House restaurant in Mammoth Lakes, said after the quakes rocked the restaurant and its 50 customers. “There’s a feeling of semi-panic in the room, but people are fighting it.” Southern California Edison reported that about 1,000 customers in the area lost power with the initial tremors

The price pipelines charge for gas is based on the average of all prices they pay producers. Faced with slumping demand last year, pipelines were forced to close down some wells. In many cases they shut in wells supplying low cost gas because they had signed contracts forcing them to pay for newer, more expensive gas. They passed these higher costs on to consumers. Some congressmen, angry over steep increases in gas

Wrong man with right name spends 31 days in jail SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) An innocent man spent 31 days in jail including Christmas because he had the same name and age as the suspect in four hit-and-run deaths. Now police in two states are being blamed for the mistake. Gregorio Sanchez, 28, was mistaken in Carlsbad. N.M., for a 28-year-old San Antonio man accused of twice ramming his pickup truck into a crowd, killing four people and injuring two others July 17. A month after Sanchez - Nov. 28 arrest, Carlsbad police obtained a photo of the genuine suspect and realized their error. They released Sanchez on Dec. 27. “Every one of those days, he was treated as the worst criminal in the Southwest.” said Mike Carrasco, the attorney for Sanchez, blaming careless police work for his client's arrest. * Meanwhile, the real suspect remains at large, wanted on four murder warrants, officials said. Sanchez’ problems in Carlsbad began when he wandered near a used car lot that had been the target of recent burglaries. Officers spotted him and stopped him briefly for questioning. He was arrested two days later after a check of computerized national crime records showed a Gregorio Sanchez was wanted in Texas on four murder warrants in the hit-and-run killings in San Antonio. The driver of that car plowed into the crowd, tires sqealing, then circled around and drove through the crowd again, police said. A warrant was issued based on the pickup truck’s license number. The Sanchez men were born in the same year and had the same height. But Carrasco blamed Texas police for not sending more information about their suspect to New Mexico authorities sooner. Sanchez did not have a listed telephone number in Carlsbad and authorities said they could provide no information on where he could be reached for comment. In Texas, Bexar County Sheriff’s Commander Gene Talbert blamed police in New Mexico for the mistake. “Carlsbad police were at fault... because they told us they had the man we wanted here.” Talbert said Thursday. “We simply proceeded to bring him at all costs to face charges.” But Carlsbad Police Chief Charles Galloway disagreed. His officers had “minimal” information from the national crime computer, and the mistake was not discovered until San Antonio authorities sent photos that confirmed the wrong man had been arrested, he said.

source of the reports of possible Soviet trot incolvement in the expected SAM-5 deployments, the U.S. intelligence specialists made it clear they take those reports seriously. The Israeli army last Tuesday issued a communique claiming that two bases for Soviet SAM-5 surface-to-air missiles are being built inside Syria. U.S. intelligence sources con-

but most had power back within several hours. Crews were sent into the Crowley Lake area to hook up about 100 customers still without power late Thursday evening, said spokeswoman Becky Sordelet. The earthquake swarm was so massive that it may take days to analyze, Finley said. “It’s too early to tell whether activity tonight may be leading to a volcanic eruption,” he said, adding that USGS geologists on the scene “say there’s no indication of volcanic activity.” Last May, the USGS issued a “notice of potential volcanic; hazard” for the region.

prices coming at a same time of record gas surpluses, have called for an immediate price freeze and legislation to force renegotiation of contracts between pipelines and producers. “This provides more evidence for members of Congress who are already hearing loudly from constitutents that prices are zooming to excruciating heights,” said Edwin Rothschild, spokesman for the Citizen-Labor Energy Coalition.

firmed the Israeli claims, saying construction work has been started in apparent preparation for deployment of the SAM-5 missiles, which have an estimated range of 150 to 190 miles. Although the Israelis avoided naming the locations of the new sites, U.S. intelligence sources said they are at Dumayr, northeast of Damascus, and at Homs, north of Lebanon.