It takes a brave man

 

 

It takes a brave man to run into a burning building. 

The phone rang shortly after 9PM (21:00)on Feburary 10th.  It was Steve L.  "The fire house in on fire!  It's burning to the ground!  I've called 911....do you have the chiefs phone number?"  Janice gave Steve L. the number as I rushed to change clothes.  "Steve's not home (the fire chief, we have 5 Steve's in our neighborhood)" Janice announced as I put on my heavy jacket. 

Moments before I had looked out front door window to be greeted with the sight of flames shooting from the Firehouse roof.  It appeared to be totally involved.  I grabbed my radio and flashlight and headed out the door.  Milo had to stay home.  It was no place for our dog. 

The temperature was in the low teens and the wind was blowing west to east at about 15 miles per hour.    If the fire started "crowning" in the trees, the whole neighborhood would be gone!  Fortunately, we had 5" of snow that kept the fire from spreading.  The fire was contained to the building.  I didn't see anybody controlling traffic.  Because that is usually what I do in these cases, I posted my self at the top of Dr. Paul's upper driveway.  I could direct traffic down the upper driveway, out the lower driveway and onto Misty Vale, the lower road around the firehouse.  My other concern was the propane tank by the north corner of the firehouse.  I had to keep people away from that area.  If it was to go, it would have been a nasty explosion.  It did not explode and everybody was safe.

Many times, at our board meetings, our fire chief would comment about the fire fighting movies being produced.  He would often joke "You'll never find me running into a burning building." I was not aware of it when I started directing traffic, but Steve S. (the chief) was indeed, running into the burning firehouse.  We had two fire trucks in the building.  He drove BOTH of them to a safe location before the ceiling started to collapse.  Fortunately, our two largest vehicles were safely parked in the new fire house.  4501 is our newest and largest truck.  I wrote the check.  We spent over $320,000.  It was the biggest check I have ever written. I would have hated to see it go up in smoke.

Twelve trucks and over forty fire fighters responded.  We had personnel from Sunshine, Gold Hill, Four Mile and Boulder Rural fire departments.

A uniformed fire fighter took over traffic and I went back to the house get warm.  By this time Janice had fixed a large pot of coffee and one of hot chocolate.  We grabbed cups, cream and sugar, a large bag of cookies and headed back to the fire scene.  Janice set up shop on the rear tailgate of Steve's truck.  At that point, Pavel and I took a walk around the scene.  I had encouraged Pavel to run for the board of directors while I was on the board.  I nominated him the position of Director and he was elected.  He will never forgive me for that. LOL

The fire was brought under control and units were being sent home.  Janice and I left for home around 11:45 (23:45).  We were snuggled in bed by midnight.  I turned the scanner off when Steve cleared the scene at 12:10 (00:10)  It was 8 degrees outside.

I will admit, it is awful embarrassing for a fire department to lose it own firehouse.  This morning, when I returned for photos, the arson investigator was there, inspecting the building.  It appears to have started in the furnace room.

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