We've been cooking with gas in the newsroom today. There was a big fire that started in the trailer park on Davis and spread down to the West Elementary bus barn and ran next to the Collegiate Station housing. Jeff went down when it first started, but then Patti and I went to take a look-see and snap some photos when we heard a mutual aid call go out over the scanner.
No one was hurt, but there was a lot of destruction. With the drought conditions and high winds it could have been a lot worse, but our firemen (along with firemen from Clinton, Custer City, Thomas and Hydro) were as fierce as the fire and had it under control before it burned more than it did. Pretty amazing stuff, really.
I wrote a story about how our school superintendent was bravely trying to stomp out the fire (along with other bystanders) as it approached the school, and was nearly overwhelmed. Our brush pumper truck had just run out of water and the flames were spreading like...well...wildfire. My editor and I watched in horror and began screaming for the men to get out of there because a gust of wind made the fire lurch around them. Then, just like Superman, a Clinton brush pumper came bursting through the black smoke and began spraying foam around the stompers. They literally arrived in the nick of time.
Quite a day, really, in the land of red dirt and tornadoes.
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