Fire at Norfolk Downs Race Track


Suspicious fire claims the live of 15 horses at the Norfolk Downs Race Track in Chicago at four o’clock this morning. Ten out of the twenty-five horses that were residing in the one-story, wooden barn for the opening race survived.

“It could have been of an incendiary nature because it started in the middle of the barn, not at the end. The only heaters and electrical outlets were in the tack rooms at the ends of the barns,” stated Dan Bucci, assistant general manager of the track.

Jim Connery, fire chief: “The fire exploded near the center of the barn. Flames were shooting out of the building when we got here. The fire is definitely suspicious.”

The fire is being suspected of being arson and an arson squad has been called to investigate the fire.

Plane Crash

Two professors of Backwater State University escaped injury from the plane crash that took five lives at Kennedy International Airport.

Associate professor of rural sociology John Dumont and associate professor of English George Johnson were returning Thursday night from separate conferences in New York City. They were on a TWA jet that crashed during take off with forty-three passengers and crew members aboard.