NU Foundation Raising Funds for UNO Dorm Fire Victims

The NU Foundation is now collecting funds to help the 42 victims of Wednesday's fire at the UNO dorms on the Aksarben Campus in the Scott Village. While thankfully nobody was injured, all have lost clothes, books, computers, and other personal possessions.  Some may simply be waterlogged and salvageable, but I suspect most everything will need to be replaced.

Eight freshman UNO hockey players are among the 42 residents of the building that burned.  While their first floor apartments were not destroyed, they've undoubtedly lost much. Since this fund will assist all of the fire victims, it should not present any NCAA violations.

Fire officials have determined that the blaze began with a carelessly discarded cigarette. So count a few more victims of someone else's smoking. Ironically, this fire probably is the unintended consequence of smoking bans. Thirty years ago, people would just smoke in their apartment, but now, smoking isn't permitted indoors anymore.  So people go outside, and since they already are snubbing their noses at the rules regarding smoking, they don't take the appropriate caution.  So now one smoker (and 41 other UNO students) are paying the price for a really nasty habit.