Running legend Alberto Salazar visits Eugene I 13
Oregon Daily Emerald
An independent newspaper at the University of Oregon
www. daily emerald, com
Since 1900 | Volume 107, Issue 69 | Thursday, December 1, 2005
Andrew Scott | Freelance Photographer
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Parker Howell | Editor in chief
Fire crews (left) arrive at an apartment fire on East 18th
Avenue that critically injured one student and left six others
homeless. Senior Jason Beck’s (above) apartment and car
were also damaged in the blaze Wednesday morning.
Apartment fire near campus injures UO student
John Huddleston, 19, was in critical condition Wednesday after being
rescued from the blaze; six other University students were displaced
PARKER HOWELL
EDITOR IN CHIEF
A 19-year-old University student was in critical
condition at a Portland hospital Wednesday night
after being rescued from his burning campus
area apartment early that morning.
Firefighters pulled John Huddleston through a
window of his ground-floor apartment on East
18th Avenue and resuscitated him shortly after
4:09 a.m. Huddleston was then transported to
Sacred Heart Medical Center by ambulance be
fore being moved to Legacy Emmanuel Hospital
in Portland by helicopter.
The blaze left six other students homeless
after it spread upstairs and into the building’s
attic, blackening the front of the two-story com
plex and leaving the inside of several apartments
coated in gray ash. Piles of burnt clothing and a
destroyed mattress lay outside Wednesday after
noon next to a car warped by the fire’s heat.
No one else was injured in the blaze, said
Glen Potter, spokesman for the Eugene
Fire Department.
He estimated damage to the building
at $200,000.
The blaze started when a smoldering cigarette
left on a green couch outside Huddleston’s apart
ment caught the couch on fire and flames spread
inside, Potter said.
University senior Jason Beck, who lives in the
apartment directly above Huddle
ston’s at 765 E. 18th Ave., woke
up around 4 a.m. to people
yelling, ‘Fire.’
“I looked out the window, and
I just kind of saw this orange
glow,” he said. “And at first I
thought it was just my car was
on fire, and I opened the door
and I got hit by all this heat and
smoke and I realized the building
was on fire. ”
Beck grabbed his cell phone, called 911, put on
a jacket and ran from the blaze.
“At that point, the fire was just basically the
first floor; it was just kind of coming out the first
floor windows,” he said. “It kind of like slowly
started building up, and I was getting kind of
worried it was going to just completely engulf my
East 17th Avenue
765 E. 18th Ave.
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Parker Howell | Editor in chief
apartment, too.”
Then firefighters arrived.
Senior Andrew Scott, who
lives across the alley from the
apartments, watched as
firefighters dragged Huddleston
from his apartment and
resuscitated him.
"He didn’t look like he was
alive,” he said.
After Huddleston was res
cued, firefighters quickly extinguished the fire,
Scott said.
American Red Cross volunteers responded to
the fire Wednesday morning. The organization is
putting up some students in hotels until they find
new apartments, spokeswoman Jenny Carrick
said. Others received vouchers for clothing.
FIRE, page 16 *
Living
with HIV
Christopher Gordon draws on
his experiences to teach others
about avoiding HIV and AIDS
BY KATY GAGNON
NEWS REPORTER
ast May, just eight days before his 20th
birthday, Christopher Gordon discovered he
JL-Jwas infected by the Human Immunodefi
ciency Virus, the virus that causes AIDS.
When he found out, Gordon said, he didn’t
feel anything. His mind and body went into
shock and everything went numb.
But that night, Gordon broke down. He cried
for the next couple days without stopping.
“I sat in a comer. I didn’t want anyone to touch
me or talk to me. I just wanted to be by myself,”
he said.
Six months later, Gordon is volunteering for
the Eugene HIV Alliance, educating youths about
the risks of contracting HIV.
In January, he hopes to begin his first term at
“Like the butterfly\ my life may be short, I plan on making it a beautiful one.
Christopher Gordon
Tim Bo bosky I Photo editor
Christopher Gordon talks about his experiences; the acceptance he has found in Eugene, his life with HIV, lessons
he hopes to impart to others and his plans to study at the University.
the University.
Gordon’s journey to where he is today was a
long and difficult one.
It began in the rural town of Cecilia, La., where
“there’s still a lot of racism,” Gordon said.
As a child, Gordon, who is bi-racial, said he
was shuffled between family members because
nobody wanted to deal with him. He was
“degraded” and “belittled” by his white relatives
because he identified as black. He said his
parents favored his younger brother, “who was
straight and did sports.”
A student who excelled in high school, Gordon
left Cecilia for the Xavier University of Louisiana
in 2003. But Gordon, who was supporting
himself financially, couldn’t afford to stay in
school and returned to Cecilia halfway through
his second semester.
HIV, page 16
Student gets
Marshall
Scholarship
Honors College student Alletta
Brenner was recently named as
recipient of the eminent award
BY KELLY BROWN
NEWS REPORTER
University senior Alletta Brenner doesn’t
have to worry about financing her postgradu
ate work.
Brenner, a history and women’s and
gender studies double major with a minor in
political science, was selected as a Marshall
Scholar, making her the first University
student to win the prestigious scholarship
awarded by the British government.
She’ll attend the University of Edinburgh in
Scotland next year to pursue master’s degrees
MARSHALL, page 4