Regional News
Fire hits Nebraska abortion clinic
Published Friday, January 16, 2009 at 04:23 PM
Leroy Carhart
By ERIC OLSON Associated Press Writer

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) -- A nationally known abortion provider said he hopes to have his Omaha-area clinic operating by the middle of next week after a fire destroyed the basement Friday.

Federal investigators were looking into what caused the fire at Dr. LeRoy Carhart's clinic, which for years has been the target of anti-abortion protests.

Carhart, who was on vacation in the Florida Keys, said no one had recently threatened him or his clinic. It is housed in a two-story, brick-and-stone building in Bellevue, a suburb south of Omaha.

Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene within hours of the fire, as was an arson investigator for the Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department.

Carhart said the FBI also was involved.

Jack Syphers of the Bellevue fire department said a preliminary investigation indicates that the blaze may have been accidental - not arson.

The FBI and other federal investigators were on the scene, he said, because federal law requires them to investigate fires at abortion clinics and churches, regardless of whether arson is suspected.

In 1991, Carhart's rural home and barn burned in a fire that killed the family dog and cat and 17 horses. That fire was ruled arson. He said he's hopeful this one was not set intentionally.

"It's always in your mind," he said Friday.

Spokesmen for the ATF and the state fire marshal did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press.

Carhart said the working area of his clinic is on the top floor, and it sustained only smoke damage.

"All the equipment is functional," he said.

The basement was used only for storage, and he said the only operating electrical device was a sewage pump. He said a gas furnace also was off.

Lost in the fire were old clinic records and boxes of family items, some that date back 200 years, he said.

Tim Wessling, a volunteer firefighter who works at Ed's Auto Body Shop next door to the clinic, said he reported the fire shortly after 6 a.m.

He said he radioed emergency responders after he and his brother Steve, another shop employee and volunteer firefighter, smelled something burning and noticed smoke coming from the clinic basement.

There were no reports of injuries.

A Bellevue fire official said the fire was under control quickly. By late morning, workers using front loaders hauled debris from the building.

Carhart said once investigators release the building to him, workers will start immediately to clean it and prepare it for reopening.

"Our goal is to be up and running by the next day we have appointments, which is Wednesday," he said. "If not, we'll be looking for other solutions, or I'll have to go work in another clinic and have patients go there."

Carhart has been a frequent target of abortion opponents. His home, and those of his employees, have been picketed, and so was an equestrian center he owned.

Carhart filed a lawsuit in 2003 challenging the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and he testified before the Supreme Court in November 2006. The high court upheld the ban.

In 2000, the high court ruled for Carhart in striking down a similar Nebraska law because it lacked an exception to preserve a woman's health and encompassed a more common abortion method.

Carhart in October 2001 asked President George W. Bush to help battle domestic terrorism directed against abortion providers, and in January 2002 the FBI investigated more than 20 letters containing white powder that were mailed to abortion clinics and family planning agencies nationwide. The return address on the letters was for Carhart's Bellevue clinic.

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