Where There's Smoke...

St. Marie Fire Chief Rob Esaias had his firefighters begin patrolling St. Marie over the holiday weekend in the hopes of preventing the shooting of fireworks that might cause a structural fire. On a nightly basis, our volunteer firefighters gave up family time to assist him in patrols.

In spite of such efforts, the radio sounded at around 3:30 p.m. on July 4 and Esaias's voice came across with a sharp hint of concern, "I see black smoke billowing behind the old bowling alley. Alert all available firefighters that we need them now."

Greg Pederson, St. Marie firefighter and our son-in-law, was visiting and turned to our daughter, gave her a kiss and said "I knew it."

It was not fireworks that caused the fire. Someone had set a large stack of wooden pallets on fire just behind the old St. Marie Community Center. Flames were shooting into the air as I arrived. Fire Chief Esaias had gotten to the fire station first and some of the available men were close behind. He then guided the large fire engine out of the garage and headed to the fire. Greg Pederson and Corey Miller took the large truck down the drive to 7th Street and Avenue D and began showering the area with water from the large hose on the truck. Fire Chief Esaias took a smaller truck and guided the vehicle with one hand and with the other he sprayed the area with the small hose from inside the vehicle. He was on his own.

Other firefighters had not arrived. The pallets were ablaze with flames jumping 10 feet into the air but Rob said he was not too concerned about the pallets since they were in the center of the already blackened field so he drove as best he could watering down the perimeter trying to keep the fire from spreading. The wind was coming out of the north at 8 to 12 miles per hour, on my knotmeter, and it was sporadic. When he sprayed water one direction the wind would take it another direction. It was difficult to say the least.

About 20 minutes later, the others firefighters arrived and approached the field with the other trucks. Massive spray from the hoses was inundating the area. About 300 feet south, the large truck was spraying water as well as loading up the trucks that kept running out of water. Fortunately, there was a fire hydrant at 7th Street and Avenue D. As the men were spraying the area, St. Marie firefighter Kala Pedersen came up in her pickup truck. She had responded all the way from Glasgow. I mistakenly identified her last week at the June 25 fire as a Long Run firefighter, but she is one of ours.

The Long Run fire department, led by Fire Chief Chris Knodel, arrived from the far south and had approached the fire from the rear. Fire Chief Esaias figured that they could head off the fire before it reached St. Marie's water plant that contains several gas chlorine cylinders just over the hill from the blaze. According to Esaias, our water supply would have been seriously jeopardized.

The fire had jumped 7th Street and was heading south. It was a back and forth battle with the wind causing the smoldering grass to reignite, forcing the fire trucks to return to something they had already put out. It was a stubborn fire. Finally the fire was under control at about 6:30 p.m. The fire department took GPS readings and the fire had burned 18.7 acres. We were lucky.

Contacted for comment on Tuesday, Esaias indicated that arson is suspected. He added that area patrols will be increased to combat the threat of future fires.