Building Fire on Aurora Street

-Samantha Allen

A room in an apartment complex on South Aurora Street caught fire this afternoon, according to officials from the Ithaca Fire Department, causing them to block off several blocks of South Aurora, Prospect and Pleasant streets for several hours.

Assistant Chief Daniel Tier III said the fire was located on 313 South Aurora St. after a neighbor called when he noticed smoke in his apartment next door.

Tier said windows were shattered, and there was fire and smoke coming from a third story window when officials arrived on the scene and contained the flames. He said no one was injured in the fire.

Tier said his team is investigating a possible power surge as the cause of the fire.

"We've had about a dozen complaints from houses in this area," Tier said.

Assistant Chief Mike Schnurle said the roads reopened at 9 p.m. He said investigators and the New York State Electric and Gas Company are still on the scene.

Ed Cope, the owner of the apartment complex, said officials told him they had to cut the power to surrounding homes to be safe.

Federro Gonzalez, a senior at Cornell University who lives on the first floor of the apartment building, said his roommate and neighbors had been experiencing electrical problems recently.

"Things like light bulbs going out, and even blackouts on the entire street," Gonzalez said. "Before I saw [the smoke], I heard the TV pop."

Senior Thomas Muscara, who lives at 309 Aurora St., said before he saw the smoke in his apartment, he heard his microwave, television and stereo make strange popping noises.

Muscara said he called 911 when he entered his roommate's bedroom and found it filled with smoke that had developed presumably from these electrical "pops."

Upon his discovery, he ran outside to tell his neighbors, some of whom were resting on the front lawn. They didn't realize the fire until they looked up and actually saw flames exploding out the top window. Muscara said that the neighbors were caught off-guard, and flagged down a passing-by police car. When the fire department showed up, Muscara said the doors were locked, so the firemen took an axe to the front doors of apartment 311 and 313 on So. Aurora. Ouch!

Schnurle said 12 occupants have been displaced from the building but could not release their names. The Red Cross is currently helping them find shelter.

SIDE NOTE: I got a call from Editor of the Ithacan, Erin Geismar at about 4:30 today, just after I had slipped into my pajamas for some good afternoon vegetation. She said there was a fire, according to Editor Libby Sile, who was just driving by, and if I wanted it, the story was mine! So I quickly dressed, ran to Park and was thrown into my first on-site story! The action was all very exciting. My editor, Lindsey Hollenbaugh, contributed to this story and got some last minute facts. I'm hoping to do a more investigative piece on these mysterious "power surges." More news to come on that!

ALSO! I would love to get the name of who lives in that bedroom on 313 Aurora St. where the fire occurred. Anyone? Please let me know! Apparently, students of the complex weren't very familiar with him.

What's new with IC Public Safety

-Samantha Allen

Sometimes, I feel like the school newspaper, Ithaca College’s The Ithacan, consumes my life. But when I feel psyched enough about a current story that I actually want to write more, I think it’s important to share on News 1’s very own Tompkins County site.

I don’t resent this assignment at all ;).

Let me start at the beginning. As a naïve, excited and altogether horrified freshman Journalism major, I just wanted some way to be heard and to get my name out on campus upon my arrival. When an editors’ meeting for hardcore news had an opening for the Public Safety and Crime beat, I jumped at the opportunity.

It’s like metro, local reporting. Metro is something real people read, right? I use the operative word “real” because I never really do consider college to be my real-world.

This is just practice. But a job in college can always provide advantageous experience for the future.

Or so I am told?....I hope!

So I started getting into my Crime beat, at first just covering minor events on campus: roof leaks, someone’s stolen cell phone at a party and DWIs. Nothing too fancy.

Then the big ones started rolling in:

- College staff member convicted of grand larceny on-campus (over $370k! Just yesterday Wendy Travis pled guilty and faces up to 6 years in jail and maybe partial time in prison),
- Rape by a man unknown to the victim in her college dorm,
- And even an armed robbery over what officials are now saying was “drug-related.”

Yikes, but as a new writer, it was dream come true.

Still today as the seasoned sophomore, I’m keeping up with my beat. It’s hard work when you’re on a beat I’m finding – you sort of BEAT yourself up went you miss that major story.

My editors have sort of been hounding me for not catching a larceny-story a couple weeks back, some misappropriated $3,000 that showed up in the Daily Crime Log on the Public Safety home page as a major larceny.

I was just approached by my editor while writing this.
“It’s a shame when something like that slips through the cracks,” she said.
I totally agree, and I am soooooo sorry. Note to self: one more thing to work on is developing a thicker skin.

I’ll add that to my already crowded agenda. But that’s the life of a journalist.
The slip-up was totally my mistake though. I had been prioritizing a story that was printed this week – officers training with semi-automatic weapons for the new Active Shooter program, a direct response to school shootings around the country. It was a really fascinating story and I wrote way too much – 1,000 words for a 700-block. Ah, edit, edit, edit!

For the most part though, this beat is incredibly fun and educational. It’s nice going to a department where everyone knows you as the “newspaper girl” and officers are happy to introduce you to their superiors. Networking = more contacts to call when a breaking story strikes!

For example, last weekend I attended an open forum for the search for IC’s next Public Safety Director. The previous director, 20+ year-veteran and ex-FBI agent Bob Holt (quite an amazing man with a sort of Robert Redford quality) stepped down to conduct the Active Shooter program. Now he and several other members of administration are looking for someone to fill his most-accomplished shoes.

My main media contact for public information from Public Safety, Investigator Tom Dunn, decided to give it a shot, after he said he was encouraged by several workers in the office to apply. I was happy to attend his open forum, not just because he’s my main contact on the beat, but because developed a friendship in our reporter-source relationship.

Isn’t that the best when something like that happen?

I could tell he was nervous, giving his PowerPoint presentation on the Importance of Campus Safety and why he would make a Viable Candidate for the Big Position. He even referenced me in his speech in front of a room of ten inquisitive people: “And because I see her here, I’d also like to point out that I work closely with Samantha and the school newspaper. I think it’s important for us to release information and build a relationship with the student body this way.”

Aww, touching.

He’s rather young for the job, and he’s part of the internal network, so I guess those factors work against him. A lot of the questions directed towards him were almost challenging, like “Why would we want you if you’re already an equal with the people you’ll be directing?” Ouch. But I think he knew that going in.

Dunn was adamant about one point that seemed to resonate with the crowd: “I want the best possible person to fill the role of Director. I hope that’s me but if not, we need to do what’s best for the department.”

Dunn is very loyal and obviously dedicated to his practice, he’s been working at the college since the 80’s also, and he even went to Ithaca College and worked on SASP – Student Patrol. But us college-hippies call them “Students Against Students Partying.”

Ha.

So I’m waiting to see how the new Director thing works out. Dunn’s presentation was the first open forum of five. 

It was really nice though, going to a meeting like that, encouraging Dunn and telling him “you did fine,” and then being formally introduced to the esteemed Holt who I had really only spoken to over the phone. Holt said he had read my article on the Active Shooter program and was very pleased

Omg, Bob Holt thinks I did a good job!!!!!!111!

The next project for me: actually attending a firing range with the Active Shooter team! The Ithaca Police Department (IPD) actually has a local firing range they let the campus officers use to practice with their AR-15 patrol rifles and semi-automatic handguns called “glocks.”
A typical girl like me never learned that at school.
But apparently, the boys think it would be a hoot if the “newspaper girl” shot up a shooting range. So do my editors! As a traditional liberals’ daughter who was raised as a pacifist, I’ve never even held a weapon but I think this could be great. And it might make a good side-bar story on the Ithacan website. And a good experience.

Or, it might just bring me closer to the officers and give us all a good laugh.

Either way, I’ll have to keep you posted.