Chávez Faces New Complications After Surgery

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is facing “new complications” arising from a respiratory infection following cancer surgery in Cuba, Vice President Nicolás Maduro said in a televised statement on Sunday night.

“Nineteen days after the complex surgery, President Chávez’s condition continues to be delicate, presenting complications that are being treated, in a process that is not without risks,” Mr. Maduro said, speaking from Havana, where he had flown a day earlier to visit the president, who is being treated in a hospital there.

Looking grim, Mr. Maduro said that, after arriving in Havana, “we were told about new complications arising as a consequence of the respiratory infection.” Officials previously had said the infection was detected on Dec. 17, almost a week after the surgery.

Mr. Maduro said that he had just come from a visit with Mr. Chávez. He also said that he spoke about national affairs with the president and that Mr. Chávez sent an end-of-the-year greeting to the families of Venezuela.

Mr. Maduro, who has been designated by Mr. Chávez as the one to continue leading his Socialist revolution if he is too ill to govern, said that he planned to remain in Havana for “the coming hours” to monitor the president’s condition.

Venezuela has been in deep uncertainty for weeks as a result of Mr. Chávez’s sickness and his extended absence. Mr. Chávez, who has been president for nearly 14 years, was re-elected in October, but officials have said that he may not be able to return to Venezuela for the start of his new six-year term on Jan. 10.

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Webster Residents Survey Ruins After Homes Are Burned in Plot to Kill Firefighters

The man shot and killed two firefighters and injured two others before killing himself on Monday, the authorities said.

For those whose homes were destroyed, it was a day to take stock and grieve over what was lost on Lake Road.

John Kohut stared at the spot where his house once stood and saw only embers. “I just wanted to see if there was anything left,” Mr. Kohut, 68, said as he stepped over burned floorboards and charred concrete. “There is nothing.”

“You can’t even tell where the refrigerator or stove or anything was,” he added. “It is hard to make any sense of it.”

As people in town prepared for a winter storm and those left without a home sought shelter elsewhere, the police said they were still searching for clues about what had motivated the gunman, William Spengler Jr., to go on his deadly rampage and deliberately target firefighters.

But Mr. Spengler, 62, seemed to make his intentions clear in a typewritten note recovered by investigators.

“I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best — killing people,” he wrote in the note.

Human remains found inside the Spengler home were believed to be those of Mr. Spengler’s sister, Cheryl Spengler, 67, the authorities said. The two shared the home, and those who knew them said they did not get along.

Gerald L. Pickering, the chief of police in Webster, said Mr. Spengler set fire to a car early on Monday in a trap for emergency responders. As the firefighters arrived, he said, Mr. Spengler shot at them with a semiautomatic assault rifle; firing from a nearby berm where he was hiding, he killed the firefighters Michael Chiapperini, 43, and Tomasz Kaczowka, 19. They were members of the West Webster Fire Department, a volunteer force.

Outside their fire station, a memorial of candles, cards and flowers continued to grow, and firefighters from across the region arrived to offer their condolences.

“We are all brothers,” Gene Preston, 71, a member of the nearby North Greece Fire Department, said at the crime scene. “When one bleeds, we all bleed.”

“It is unbelievable and unspeakable,” he added. “In all my days of fighting fires, not once did I pull up to the scene and think I would be shot at. You think water supply and human life — in that order. Being shot at is not part of our training.”

Separate funeral services for the two firefighters have been scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

Two other firefighters, Theodore Scardino and Joseph Hofstetter, were seriously wounded in the attack but were recovering, officials said.

In a statement issued through the University of Rochester Medical Center, the two firefighters said they were “humbled and overwhelmed” by the outpouring of support.

As residents surveyed the wreckage of their homes and the town mourned those killed, many offered recollections of their dealings with Mr. Spengler, who moved back to Webster in 1998 after serving a 17-year sentence for killing his grandmother with a hammer.

Despite what he had done, Mr. Spengler did not hide himself away, neighbors and relatives said. He was frequently seen tinkering on one project or another in his yard, quick to chat with neighbors and let them know his mind.

Nick Marino, 25, whose home near the Spengler house was damaged in the fire, said he had spoken to Mr. Spengler several times.

About a month ago, he recalled Mr. Spengler’s complaining to him about his tax bill. But what Mr. Marino remembered most about that conversation was Mr. Spengler’s outfit. Despite it being bitterly cold, he wore only cutoff jean shorts, T-shirt and sandals.

He seemed like “an old hippie,” Mr. Marino said, but not someone dangerous.

Like many others interviewed in Webster this week, Mr. Marino was unaware of Mr. Spengler’s violent history.

Marc Fiore, 45, said he thought of Mr. Spengler as “kind of a busybody.”

“I did not know his past, but I talked to him,” he said. He described him as awkward but not outwardly threatening.

Before his mother, Arline, died in October, Mr. Spengler visited her nearly every day at St. Ann’s Home, in northeast Rochester, according to people who worked there. He was often seen joking with the attendants.

A relative said it was possible that Mr. Spengler and his sister were feuding over who would inherit the family home after her death.

Now that home is part of the ruins on Lake Road.

Michael D. Regan reported from Webster, and Marc Santora from New York.

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Wright House in Phoenix Is Sold After Fight for Preservation

The deal closed after at least one offer to buy the property had fallen through. Its former owners, Steve Sells and John Hoffman, principals at 8081 Meridian, a local development company, bought the property for $1.8 million in June and several times raised the price as the controversy over the potential demolition intensified.

The buyer’s identity has not been revealed; he requested anonymity as part of the transaction. He paid $2.387 million for the house, which Wright built in 1952 for his son and daughter-in-law, David and Gladys, according to Robert Joffe of Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty, who represented the sellers in the transaction.

Its latest asking price was $2.51 million. The owners said they had raised the price to offset the mounting costs of fighting attempts to have the house declared a landmark, which, in Arizona, would delay any demolition for three years.

A victory for preservationists around the country, the sale came about through the intercession of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, a group that works to preserve the architect’s legacy. The sale unfolded in virtual secret; few people beyond the sellers, their agent, the buyer and officials at the conservancy were aware of its details.

The fight to save the house had galvanized preservationists and stirred spirited debates among City Council members over the value of preserving historically relevant structures versus the need to safeguard homeowners’ property rights.

The conservancy and other organizations petitioned the city in June to consider giving the house landmark status, after they learned of the former owners’ plans to split the lot to build the new homes. Three local government bodies approved the landmark designation, but the Council, which has the final say, postponed its vote twice, in part to give the parties more time to strike some type of compromise. There was also uncertainty over how some of its members would vote, given the homeowners’ lack of consent for the landmark process.

“If ever there was a case to balance private property rights versus the public good, to save something historically important to the cultural legacy of the city, this was it,” Larry Woodin, the president of the conservancy, said in an interview.

The latest agreement materialized over the span of two weeks, part of an effort by the conservancy to find a buyer or group of buyers for the property — and after the sellers had rejected prior offers.

Mayor Greg Stanton, who was among the most vocal proponents of landmark designation for the home, called the sale “an early Christmas present for the people of Phoenix and for the world.”

“This is a great piece of architecture, and we’re so proud and honored that it will be preserved for generations to come,” he added.

The house sits in the Arcadia neighborhood, in a lot overlooking Phoenix’s picturesque Camelback Mountains, which can be seen from most of its rooms. Its coiled design is similar to the one Wright used for the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Though little known before this, it is regarded among experts as one of the most significant of Wright’s later works.

Four years ago, Wright’s granddaughters sold the house for $2.8 million to a buyer they thought would keep it and preserve it. In June, though, the house was sold again to 8081 Meridian. An appraisal ordered by the city estimated the home needed about $300,000 worth of restoration work.

A petition started by the conservancy gathered more than 28,000 signatures from supporters around the world, calling for the house to be saved.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Joffe said it was “the most fulfilling deal of my 28 years in real estate” because of the significance of the house.

An Arizona-based nonprofit organization being established with help from the conservancy will maintain and operate the house and oversee its restoration. The new owner will also ask the City Council to grant landmark status, said the conservancy’s executive director, Janet Halstead.

The goal is to make the house available for educational purposes on a limited basis — ushering in what Mr. Woodin described as “a new chapter in the life of this important and unique Frank Lloyd Wright building.”

About one in five buildings designed by Wright have been lost to natural disasters, neglect or the pressures of development. Since its incorporation in 1989, the conservancy has helped rescue a number of them.

Included are the Burton J. Westcott House in Springfield, Ohio, which Wright designed in 1906; the Goestsch-Winckler House, built in 1940 as part of an uncompleted cooperative community in Okemos, Mich.; and the Ennis House in Los Angeles, which Wright designed in 1923 and which was extensively damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

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Memo From Washington: After School Tragedy, Partisanship Cools in Washington

Though seemingly unrelated, the emotionally wrenching school shooting may soften the hearts of politicians as they try to resolve the fiscal crisis.

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