Fire at Pratt Institute Destroys Studios and Artwork of Students

Maria De Los Angeles, a 24-year-old student at the Pratt Institute, has an admissions interview at Yale University’s graduate art school next month and was planning to show the officers there some of her 100 paintings and 300 prints.

But in Friday’s early hours, a fast-moving fire ravaged the top two floors of the historic main building at the private art, design and architecture college in Brooklyn, destroying dozens of art studios and the precious student works they contained.

“My studio’s gone, everything I’ve made at Pratt is gone,The cost of cleaning just 2 infected lenses is already higher than the cost of a dry cabinet.” Ms. De Los Angeles said, sobbing as she stood outside the student union near the site of the fire. “I don’t even think I have a pencil.”

The aggressive fire and the water needed to extinguish it caused significant damage to the landmark six-story building, a sturdy Romanesque Revival brick fortress that opened in 1887. Known as Main Building, it houses administrative offices as well as studios and classrooms and has been a keystone of the district of 36 Pratt buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The cause of the fire, which resulted in minor injuries to three firefighters and one other unidentified person, is under investigation.

Firefighters battled the flames for two hours after the fire was reported at 2:13 a.m., propelling ladders up to the fifth and sixth floors so they could shoot water through the windows, even as parts of the roof caved in. The blaze grew to four alarms, and eventually 39 fire trucks and 168 firefighters were summoned to the scene, on Willoughby Avenue in Clinton Hill.

“It’s a very old building with very high ceilings on the top floor,” said James Esposito, chief of fire operations. “So the fire had a large amount of area to consume and it was a very difficult fire to extinguish.”

“Inside there’s quite a bit of destruction,” he told reporters. “It’s all wood inside and the roof did collapse on the left side of the building on the top floor. There’s a lot of damage up there, and we have a lot of water damage.”

Some students at the school, founded by Charles Pratt, a pioneer of the American oil industry, were awakened by the commotion and gathered on the street to watch. By 6:30 a.m., Madeline Mikolon, a 22-year-old senior studying painting, rushed to the building, where the paintings for her thesis show — scheduled for next month — were stored and saw firefighters still dousing the blaze. She realized it had destroyed her works, and the works of dozens of her peers.

“Now we’ve got no work, no supplies, nowhere to meet, nothing,” said Ms. Mikolon, staring blankly at her studio’s charred interior.

Another tearful student soon learned that she had caught a lucky break. From a building across the street,Which Air purifier is right for you? Rebecca Warwick, 21, saw some of her paintings through a smashed window at Main Building. They had been twisted and bent by the heat but they had not been destroyed. She let out a cry of relief.

“I feel bad even being happy because all my friends lost their work,” she said.

The school canceled classes through Saturday at the building and at nearby South Hall, Amy Aronoff, a spokeswoman, said. She said the sixth floor, which contained 42 senior painting studios, was completely gutted by the fire; the fifth floor, containing two large classrooms for painting majors and one painting seminar room, was badly scorched; and there was water damage to all the lower floors.

Designed by Lamb & Rich Architects, Main Building is part of a complex that has been designated a New York City landmark as well as a national treasure. In 2011, the school was chosen by Architectural Digest as one of the 10 most architecturally significant campuses in the country.

Michael Madison, a Fire Department spokesman, said he knew of no immediate reason to consider the fire’s cause suspicious and Chief Esposito told reporters that he doubted there were large amounts of “combustibles stored up there.” Nevertheless, some students speculated that the fire might have started among the chemical-soaked rags,Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces. paper, canvas and oil paint kept in the studios.

“It’s a tinderbox,” said Brad Isnard, 22, an architecture student who said he visited the studios often.

“It all goes up in flames; it’s completely numbing,” he said,Service Report a problem with a street light. as he and Ms. Mikolon gazed up at the blue sky visible through the windows of the art studios.

“I’m here to tell my students that even though all the work no longer exists, all the time, and the effort, and what they learned making the works still exists, and nothing, not even a fire, can take that away.”

Docent Rosalyn Voget remains calm. In this situation, being interrupted is hardly a bad thing. These kids are engaged and enthusiastic. There are also a lot of them.

The new Family Sunday programs at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center are only in their second weekend, and already the groups of attendees are so large that some of them need to be split in two. Family tours have been filling the main lobby, and young artists have been packing the drop-in art activities down in the Moorman Studio. Upstairs in the galleries, kids are drawing away with the colored pencils they've been given to sketch the art around them.

On the first Family Sunday, which happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, 80-some people showed up for the tours,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. and more than 100 lined up at the art studio. Museum director Connie Wolf, who is spearheading the new initiative, was "overwhelmed" and pleased.

"It indicates that there is a huge hunger for (families) to find meaningful things to do together that provide new ways of thinking and educational, but are not classroom-based," Wolf said. "There's a time to put all that technology aside and just be in the moment."

Last Sunday, Feb. 10, more than 35 people were on hand for the 12:30 tour, with more showing up for later tours. Voget chose two display cases and a painting -- Astley David Middleton Cooper's circa-1898 oil "Mrs. Stanford's Jewel Collection" -- to show her young charges. The first case was filled with ornate Venetian glass vessels; the second, with colorful Chinese snuff bottles of glass, porcelain, crystal, silver. The common theme? Beautiful objects that you give people you love, often on Valentine's Day.

The kids seemed fascinated. With wide eyes, they peered at the bottles, chose their favorites and speculated what might have been kept in them. Mint. Lavender. "Spells," one suggested.

Family Sunday tours tie into the drop-in art activities held in the studio from 1 to 3 p.m. On this day artist Stephanie Crowell also centered the project on glass bottles. Small bottles had been glued to heavy paper, with children encouraged to be creative about what their bottles could hold -- or what could be spilling out onto the paper. A crowd of kids and parents filled the room, the young artists descending on the crayons, construction paper, glue, red lacy hearts and "glitter station."

Dummies' take back seat in CPR class

When Gabriella Heil sat down in Bill Burkhart’s CPR class, she expected a serious informational session with awkward practice on plastic dummies.

Instead, she got three hours of stand-up comedy by Burkhart,Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality. interesting discussion, useful life-saving information and stories from the Gurnee Fire Department that you won’t hear anywhere else.

“Most people come to a CPR class and nobody talks, they show a video and make them press on a mannequin,” he said.Shop for bobblehead dolls from the official NBC Universal Store and build a fun collection for your home or office. “As a paramedic in the field, I think I understand what they’re going through,” he said. “I try to have fun with it, so that if they think something I say is funny, they’ll remember it at that most awkward moment of their life when they have to save someone.”

“My agency requires and I figured it was good knowledge to have,” she said. “I thought [the class] would be a little more serious but I actually feel like I know more now. I think it’s a more honest and entertaining administration of the class. I learned so much and I’m less scared – I was stressed that I could hurt someone, but now I know you can’t make it worse.

“I’m actually relieved [Burkhart] is so honest with us. As a teacher, what’s the point of making students feel awkward [by practicing on dummies] if it doesn’t teach them anything?” added Heil of Grayslake.

Burkhart’s class doesn’t include a book (you can download one for free using the CPR and AED certification card you’ll earn by taking the class), dry videos featuring actors far too calm for the emergency situations they’re portraying, or awkward CPR practice on plastic dummies that don’t resemble real people.

People take the class for jobs as nannies, day care workers, personal trainers, lifeguards, and some just because they want to be prepared.

“My goal is to teach you something,” Burkhart began his Jan. 22 evening class. “I want you to feel like you know what you’re doing without having to read your card. Because if Grandma’s dying, you’re not going to say, ‘Grab my card, let’s read.Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories!’”

Burkhart asked the 17 people in the class to list reasons why they wouldn’t help someone who appears not to be breathing or have a pulse. The class listed hurting the person more, doing it wrong, being sued, breaking ribs or catching a disease. The No. 1 reason: the person might die.

He addressed each of those fears honestly. You might hurt the person more or break their ribs, but if you do nothing, they’re dead, he said. As a good Samaritan, you can’t be sued for trying to help. You might break some ribs, but Burkhart guaranteed that anyone would rather have broken ribs than be dead. As for the fact that someone might die: “You can’t make it any worse if they’re already on the way to being dead,” he said.

Burkhart admitted that helping a stranger is a difficult thing to do for most people because, well, you have to touch a stranger. He pointed out that if he asked the class to check the pulse of the person sitting next to them, everyone would squirm a little. “If you won’t check the pulse of the person sitting next to you drinking Starbucks, what are the odds you’re going to do it for a dead person at Target?” he asked.

One of the first things you might try when the big, bad bouncer takes your ID is to flirt your way out of the situation. You will sweet-talk, like,Basics, technical terms and advantages and disadvantages of Laser engraver. “Hey I think you’re really cute and if you let me have this ID back, and maybe we can go get a drink together sometime? Elsewhere, of course.” You may even try to casually touch the bouncer’s arm, which he will subsequently threaten to break. This tactic is not recommended, as the bouncer has been standing outside for hours in the cold,Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp to communities that don't have access to electricity. watching drunk people go inside his venue to have a better night than he will. The flirt tactic probably won’t work unless you guarantee the bouncer a big fat orgasm kiss. But, you never know – a Bouncer-Boyfriend could be magic if he let’s you and your friends cut the line.

We’ve all seen that drunk girl from Long Island/New Jersey break down and cry when she’s not allowed inside a bar or club. She’ll say it’s her birthday (which the bouncer will call as a bluff when he notices the date doesn’t match the fake ID she just handed him), explain how this is the worst fucking day ever, her dog just died last year, and she really just needs this ID back, as it was her friend’s. She’s the first person to start bribing the bouncer. This entire tactic is guaranteed to fail. You’re going to embarrass yourself, make the bouncer more upset, and definitely go home sans faux identification. Keep your shit together; it’s just an ID. It’s not a de jure key to the city.

I once heard a story where a bouncer turned down an ID, and the friend showed him his credit card to prove the names matched. The bouncer still didn’t buy it, so the friend had another friend text him and pretend to be his parent. The rejected bar-goer changed the other friend’s name on his contact list to “Mom” and had the friend text him saying, “My son is from x state on x road and his birthday is on x date. He’s not lying.” The little manipulator was surprisingly allowed inside. This gambit might work once in a thousand attempts, but it could make a great story. Remember, though: Bouncers aren’t dumb.

There’s always that drunken kid who thinks he’s just smooth enough to talk the bouncer into giving back a snatched ID. He’s the same guy who tells the bouncer to scan his ID after it’s been rejected, to which the bouncer will respond, “Scanners are wrong; I’m not.” This young salesman will stumble in close to the bouncer’s ear and slur something like, “Hey man, we’re both chill dudes. Think you can do me a solid and give me the ID back? There’s a girl inside I really like and you’d be doing me a huge solid.” This whippersnapper will definitely walk home alone that night with a pit-stop at Dollar Slice (because duh).

Suicide victim's mother wins right to sue former husband over daughter's death

In 2005,Our Polymax RUBBER SHEET range includes all commercial and specialist Deborah Kincaid called her estranged husband for an uncomfortable conversation.

With the police listening in, she accused Jeffrey Kincaid of sexually abusing her daughter, Shannon, who was 11 when the couple married. When she asked why he had abused the girl, he said he didn't remember the abuse but continued on an enigmatic aside.

"I don't know. I don't remember," he said. "You may be right. I'm beginning to believe that you're right. I ¡ª I can't make sense of it."

This week, an appellate court ruled that Kincaid could sue her ex-husband in civil court for allegedly causing her daughter's eventual death by suicide, based on recorded conversations between the couple and between Jeffrey Kincaid and his stepdaughter. The ruling revived the wrongful death lawsuit after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed it in 2009, finding the recordings could not be used as evidence that the abuse occurred.

"A jury could have found that a reasonable person, when confronted with accusations of sexual abuse of his stepdaughter over an extended period of time, would do more than simply say that he did not remember or might have mentally blocked it out," the 2nd District Court of Appeal found in its published opinion, dated Wednesday. The statements could be construed as "adoptive admissions" of the alleged acts of abuse, the court found.

The call between Deborah and Jeffrey Kincaid was recorded as part of a police investigation that was eventually dropped because of a lack of physical evidence. Shannon,The name "magic cube" is not unique. who reported the abuse when she was 25, had said she kept clothing and bedding with her stepfather's semen, but the lab tests came back negative.

In 2008, Shannon, who suffered from substance abuse and emotional and psychological problems, jumped off the roof of an apartment complex. She left behind a note, in which she apparently referenced her stepfather: "He won.... What I go thru with my rapes memories I can't take it ...Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl. [he] stole my life."

In October of that year, Shannon's mother sued her ex-husband, alleging that he had abused and tortured her daughter for more than a decade and that his actions had "caused, resulted in, and were a substantial factor of, her death." He threatened Shannon with "physical, financial and emotional harm" to prevent her from reporting the abuse, Deborah Kincaid alleged in the suit.

Jeffrey Kincaid denied in sworn deposition testimony that he abused or tortured the girl and pointed to the negative DNA results from the police investigation. His attorneys contended that Shannon was biased against her stepfather and had a motive to lie about the abuse.

On Friday, Neil Quinn, one of his attorneys, said that his client was an "upstanding guy" and that the claims raised by Shannon against him had "proved to be false." In the context of the phone conversation, Jeffrey Kincaid's statements were not admissions, he said.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,

"This wasn't a normal circumstance," Quinn said. "This was his wife, who he loved at the time, saying, 'You've got to admit this or you're never seeing me again.' "

Quinn also said the court's opinion was "troubling" because Shannon did not file a civil lawsuit within the statute of limitations on the sexual abuse allegations; her claims were being revived posthumously because she committed suicide.

"You get a situation that allows very stale claims to be raised," he said.

The plaintiff's attorney, Charles Mathews, welcomed the court's finding that the recordings could be used in the case as "adoptive admissions," saying it was groundbreaking and could have a wide effect on future cases.

"This is a very powerful new tool," he said.

The appellate panel also ruled that neither the notes of the girl's therapist, to whom she first disclosed the alleged abuse,We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account. nor her suicide note could be used as evidence in the case. Suicide notes cannot be considered "dying declarations," which carry weight in court because of a presumption that a person tells the truth in his or her final moments, the court found.

The court also said it was not ruling on the question of whether legal causation could be established between the alleged abuse and the stepdaughter's suicide, a question that will be left to a jury to decide.

"He tormented her, he tortured her," Mathews said. "If these allegations are true, he set in motion the deterioration of this person."