Page 10, The Herald, Wednesday, January 14, 1981 The chain of ‘ifs’ that killed Pinky Fung What happens if you're spending the night in a hotel and a guest in the next room drops a lighted cigarette on his bedspread as he falls asleep? In some Canadian cities, a smoke detector in his room probably would set off an alarm within minutes, with a good chance that neither you, your neighbor nor anyone else would be hurt. In other cities, there would be nosmoke detector and no sprinkler system, and a cigarette fire could kill someone 100 metres away. That’s what happened last Thursday in Mon- treal's Hotel Constellation, fire investigators believe. “The fire started in a sofa in the lobby or in a nearby cleaning lady's cart," said Lieut, Claude Lalonde of Montreal fire department. That was between 4 a.m. and5 a.m. EST. During the minutes that elapsed before firemen arrived, the fire in the lobby grew unchecked. Its smoke entered a nearby stairwell and immediately rose to the upper floors. Everyone in the hotel managed somehow to get out safely or was taken out by firemen, except for Pinky Fung, a 28-year-old visitor fram Hong Kong. Firemen found her body on the 18th floor soon after they arrived, She had been overcome by smoke as she sought an escape route, . and the most intense resuscitation efforts could not revive her. The chain of ‘ifs’ that killed Pinky Fung was complicated, of course, and no one can say that lack of smoke detectors and sprinkler system alone made the difference. These two safety measures, however, are increasingly regarded as important Instruments in preserving life and property. And some parts of Canada are much tougher than others in requiring their installation. The value of sprinkiers was shown less than 48 hours after the deadly Constellation fire, in another hotel across the street, An arsonist set fire to curtains in a banquet room of Le Quatre Saisons, and the blaze was ex- Wrong blood vessels cut during operation VANCOUVER (CP) — The wrong blood vessels were cut during an operation last September on 4 Prince Rupert, B.C., man who died ‘in hospital, a Vancouver surgeon said Monday. Dr, Ian Cleator told an inquest into the death of William Moorhouse, 34, that vessels providing blood to Moorhouse's liver were cut to reach his bleeding spleen but that appropriate steps were taken to repair them. Pathologist Rodney Brammall said a liver can start dying 15 minutes after blood supply is cut off. He said an autopsy showed continuous bleeding, liver failure, the shock of two operations and bleeding in the lower esophagus contributed to Moorhause’s death. Moorhouse was admitted to Prince Rupert Regional Hospital complaining of indigestion and heartburn. He was found to have gastrointestinal bleeding but the source couldn't be traced. He was flown to Vancouver on Sept. 23 where it was determined he TNE RESTAURANT “Serving Fine Foods 7 days a week" Breakfast, lunch and dinner 635-6302 SLUMBER LODGE WEDNESDAY 5 p.m. to midnight MING (HEC) CETK (CHC) BCTY ICTY) RCTS (PRS) CEUFT VB 00 icaral MO.5.H, | NHL Mister Teles ‘Si Burnett MAS.H, | Hockey Rogers Tele 5 NMIKING § TK Eeman, at }32-1 Tele-S 43 News News Toranio Cantact Tete-§ 0 NBC Wed. 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He said the man’s organs were in an unusual position because of Moorhouse’s condition and the spleen began bleeding when they tried to mave the stomach into its proper position. Cleator is head of the St. Paul’s Hospital gastro- interitis section and an associate professor of suraviy at University of B.C, The inquest continues. Oil firm slashes program CALGARY (CP) — Eight of the nine owners of Syncrude Canada Ltd. announced Tuesday in- definite suspension of the consortium’s §2-billion ex- pansion program, citing the negative impact of the Oct.28' federal budget and energy program. The announcement was made by Mike Bregazzi, chairman of the Syncrude management committee, on behalf of all owners except Petro-Canada, the federal oi] company which hasa 12-per-cent interest in the consortium. The an- nouncement followed a consortium meeting in Calgary. “The decision was the result of the combined negative impact of the federal budget and the government's energy prograin,’' Bregaz2zi said. He said the owners believe ‘the federal government will no longer provide world price for Syncrude production.” The $2.2-billien Syncrude plant has two production trains and an authorized daily production of 129,000 barrels a day of synthetic crude oil. tinguished by the hotel's sprinkler system, Le Quatre Saisons was built in 1976. Montreal has - required sprinkler systems in new hotels only since 1975, and older hotels are not required to install them. In Winnipeg, by contrast, when a sprinkler law was introduced some years ago, all older hotels were also required to install them. Quebec City has required hotels to have sprinklers since 1971 and Halifax since 1976, but like Mon- treal, neither city applies the law to existing hotels. In Toronto, sprinklers are mandatory only at the top of laundry and garbage shafts, Vancouver requires sprinklers in kitchen, basement, shopping, parking and garbage areas, and some older hotels built to less stringent fire standards are having sprinklers installed throughout.b , In Edmonton, sprinklers are required in Icbbies and underground floors, and . abave ground in buildings with large floor areas. Edmonton Fire Marshal Bob Kostash believes these regulations are inadequate. ‘High buildings, where total evacuation is just about impossible, should be totally sprinklered,’’ he — says, Sprinklers are usually triggered automatically by heat sensors. Another safety instrument that has _ begun to gain wide ac- LLOYD AXWORTHY «tar and feathers PAULINE HAS SOME PERILS national ~ FOR LLOYD OTTAWA (CP) — Employment Minister Lloyd Axworthy should be tarred and feathered for in- terfering with the decisions of the federally- supported Advisory Council on the Status of Women, New Democrat MP Pauline Jewett said Monday, Jewett, NDP critic on women’s issues, said Ax- worthy should be stripped of his cabinet respon- sibility for the status of women following a charge by council president Doris Anderson that he al- tempted to manipulate the group into postponing its planned conference cn women and the constitution next month, In an emotional speech to the Commons, Jewelt also accused the government of spying on the council by appointing Hellie Wilson to ils six- member executive "because the Liberals wanted to have a ‘mole” (spy) there to dotheir bidding." Wilson worked previously in Prime Minister Trudeau's office. Axworthy has acknowledged he suggested the conference be delayed, but denies he put pressure on the group to postpae It. Anderson was the lone member of the executive who voted to ge ahead with the conference, which would discuss matters such as jurisdiction over divorce and social services. She has threatened to resign if the council does not reverse its stand in spite of what she called the minister's interference, “That would be a clear indication to me that my time with the council was over and frankly I wouldn't want to be associated with a group that caves in to political pressure,” Anderson said later in an interview. She said Axworthy told the executive the government's constitutional proposals could be the subject of Commons debate at the time the Feb. 13- 14 conference was scheduled and could produce statements that would embarrass the government. Anderson said Axworthy also told the executive the Progressive Conservatives would be expecially eager to seize on these because Opposition Leader Joe Clark “would be fighting for his political life” then. The party decides Feb. 27 whether it wants to review his leadership. The issue started a heated exchange in the Commons Tuesday about whether Axworthy was interfering with the council's independence, as provided by Parliament, and therefore was un- dermining the work of MPs. Speaker Jeanne Sauve sald the matter did not appear to be such a question of privilege, but reserved her formal decision on the matter. Sauve stressed that parliamentary rules require MPs to take Axworthy 's word about his role in the dispute. . whether ae e ceptance in recent years is a device that sets off an alarm when it senses an abnormally high con- centration of smoke in the air. “U.S. studies have shown the validity of .smoke detectors not only i in saving lives but also in protecting Property,” says Raymond Medza, Quebec manager of the Insurance Bureau of Canada. “When I travel, I carry my own smoke detector in my briefcase, for hotels. “People used to laugh when I talked about this. They weren’t seeing the reports that it's my job to read. But alter some of the recent fires, they don’t laugh any more.” Smoke detectors naw are required in every hotel Toom in Quebec City, ‘Vancouver and Halifax. They are not required in Montreal or Toronto. Lorne Schmalz, chair- man of the fire safety comralttee for the Ontario Hotel and Motel As- sociation, said smoke detectors had the drawback that they could be triggered by, say, a ci- gar. “False alarms are dangerous because people get tired of them and just shut the system off, and then if there's a fire there’s no warning,’ Schmalz ‘says. In Winnipeg, all hotels must have smoke detectors in basement, cleaning and remote areas, but they are nat required in every room, In Edmonton, about threequarters of the hotels fall under requirements for smoke detectors in every room. Those exempted were built under stricter fire-protection codes. However, Medza cautions that fire laws and regulations are only as good as their enforcement. In Montreal, for in- stance, ‘we think the fire department does not have sufficient powers to impose respect of the laws,” And Medza emphasizes that ne mechanical systems can fully replace intelligent human _ awareness of fire hazards. “There have got to be ways and means to provide people with guidance in case of fire, and it should be done by the guy who brings you to your reom.”’ Economist sees some hope for the economy TORONTO (CP) — The Libera! government ‘an win the battle against in- flation if it holds fast to its current monetary policy long enough, economist David Laider says. But he warns: “There is no quick answer for Canada because we are boxed in." Laidler, 42, a self- described conservative economist who has taught in England, the United States and Sweden, is currently a professor of economics al the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. He is on a one-year research sabbatical until September, 1981, and discussed his theories while attending a recent conference dealing with stagflation, the phenomenon of simulta- neously high inflation and unemployment. “My interpretation of how we got into this mess is that we tried to spend our way out of the 1972 recession and did it too vigorously,” Laider said. “For the best of possible motives im 1972, the government went all out to cure the recession and they " did cure it — but in the process they left such a high inflation rate that they boxed themselves in for the next time around,” Like al] economists these days, Laidler is caught up in the debate raging in the Western world over prevailing monetary policies can be successful in curing in- flation. Laider is firmly in the monetarist camp. “The cause of inflation is overexpansionary monetary policies,’’ he said. "JE you increase the supply of money too fast, its value fails. “The key to controlling inflation is to keep the rate of growth of the money supply relative to the growth of real income.” That in fact has been the Bank of Canada’s policy since 1975, The supply of money has been kept within targeted. growth rates which have been gradually diminished, Laidler argued that the government hag Kittle choice bul to continue this approach, even though the tight supply of money and resulting high interest rates plunged North Ame- rica into a recession this year. . The opponents § of monetarism argue that Inflation is caused by a varlety of factors and cut- ting the money supply only produces hardship without attacking the causes. Economists stich as John Kenneth Galbraith have suggested some form of permanent wage and price controls are needed, They argue it is the power of big companies and.big unions, not government printed money, which has fuelled inflation. With unemployment rising and plants closing, others have insisted the government must turn its attention to ending the recession. Laidler said the con- tinuing high rate of In- flation, now running at an annual rate of 10.9 per cent in Canada, “just about automatically rules out the possibility of using monetary expansion to cure the recession, a traditional policy, because of what that might do to in- fation.” “As for fiscal policy, the federal government now is borrowing more than $1 billion a month and they are up to the limit, They cannot do anything in the way of tax cutting or in- creasing government ex- penditures,"’ The fact that inflation has not slowed despite the onset of recession has . prompted increasing criticism of the Bank of Canada’s commitment to monetarism. Laidler agreed the five- year performance ‘‘is disappointing to a monetarist but if you con- sider that we have had a 2)- percent devaluation of the dollar (relative to the United States dollar) over the period that inflation in the US. has gone from deep in the single digits to double digits, even holding the line is something of an achievement.” He said the only policy on to the Bank of Canada is just keep on doing it and hope that in five years’ time things look better than they do now.” A major criticism of monetarism is that it creates severe unem- ployment because high in- terest rates reduce ccn- sumer spending and business investment, forcing plants to cut production and lay off workers. Critics point to the tigorous monetarist policies of British Prime Minister Margaret That: cher, which have created the worst unemployment in that country since the Great Depression. Laidler said the British government is basically following the right strategy but the turnaround has been too sudden. “Tf you want to bring the inflation rate down to five percent from 10 per cent in a year, you have to have a deep recession. But if you are willing to take 10 years, the costs are less, “T much prefer the slow policy in Canada even though it is so slow you hardly notice it is working.” For the policy to continue working, Canada will need strong political leaders who are willing to stand up to charges that monetarist policies are inhumane, Laidler said. Nild. left behind as key to future ST, JOHN’S, Nfid. (CP) — When the northern land mass fractured into drif- ting, continent-sized pieces millians of years ago, Newfoundland was left behindas a key for the dis- tant Future. Today the key is being turned with spectacular success by scientists like David Strong and Harold Williams of Memorial University’s gealogy department in St. John's. The work of correlating rock units and their con- tained mineral deposits across the ocean has made Memorial a world leader in the field with results that are helping mining com- panies locate deposits of many valuable minerals. Memorial's fame as a centre of Appalachian, tectanic and metallogenic studies also guarantees instant employment — with starting salaries of up to $20,000 annually — for Ibs geology graduates. Newfoundland's terrain, the most rugged of eastern North America, clearly displays clues to ancient land movements and gives Memorial virtually a backyard advantage over other universities. “The island ia critically located at the centre of the fracture zone where the Appalachian mountain chain of North America “and the Caledonian belt of Britain and Scandinavia were separated,” says Strong, a Botwood, Nfld. native, “Newfoundland's rocky terrain and rugged coastline expose the an- cient Appalachian rocks in a variety and splendor not available in the more fertile regions to the south,” Strong says, The studies at Memorial grew from the plate tec- tonics theory which says the present surface of the earth {s actually a number of rigid plates of various thickness which move apart at mid-ocean ridges, collide at volcanic island arcs and highmountain ridges and slide past each other along big fault zones. A typical zone is the San Andreas fault in California, “Characteristic rack types and mineral deposits are created at these dif. ferent types of plate boundaries and their recognition in ancient terrains allows geologis to understand the pea of the earth's crust in terms of past processes and to reconstruct past, _ Bate boundaries.