Dawes County Fires, Chadron, Nebraska

Chadron, Ne volunteer firefigther, Andy Gooder, catches a few winks at the firehall in downtown Chadron. Andy is also my nephew and is just one of a number of volunteer firemen from Chadorn and all over the panhandle that bravely fought the Dawes County fires. Many, like Andy, for 18 to 20 hours at a stretch, before being relieved or simply ordered in to get some sleep.

He told his mom that it was so hot that at one time while riding on the back of the fire truck he thought is eyebrows were on fire, so he reached up and took off his sunglasses to put his eyebrows out, and to his surprise, his plastic sunglasses were warping from the heat, his eyebrows weren't on fire at all! He was also with a small crew of 6 or 7 that was trying to stop the fire in the area where the 3 houses were lost south of Chadron. But he said the wind was blowing about 20 mph, and even thought they were driving up & down along the fires edge at about 35 mph they couldn't keep ahead of it.

They ended up getting out of the fires way to a safe place and had to helplessly stand by and watch the houses burn, crying on each others shoulders because they tried so hard to save these homes of people that are their friends.

This is especially heart wrenching in a small town like Chadron, where everyone knows everyone. I mean it's a town of about only 1500 or so when CSC is not in session. This was doubly gutwrenching hard to watch for Andy as one of the houses belongs to his moms best friend Mary Traffigan and her husband Jerry. They lost their entire house, which is sad, but they got out safely along with the cats and the dog.

It's now a week later and the fires are mostly contained. 3 homes in Chadron were lost and one bed and breakfast near Harrison, Ne in Souix county, and around 100,000 acres burned.

The area is hilly, with the hills filled with pine trees and the areas below the hills prime grazing ground that supports much of Western Nebraskas cattle industry. The people in the area fought the fire just as hard as the firemen. Many of the local farmers and ranchers own spraying equipment that includes water tanks mounted on the backs of pickups or trailers. They filled them time and again beating the fires back from homes and outbuildings. They also own tractors and plows and plowed fire breaks around homes and other places in an effort to get the fire stopped.

If not for the valiant efforts of the locals the fire would have been much worse and many more homes and possibly lives would have been lost.

You see the character of the people is such that we don't wait for FEMA or the Feds to come to our rescue, we get together and help ourselves. Even the women and the kids are tough, I'm sure if you were to ask around you would discover that some of the tractors and home sprayers were being manned by women. There was one photo in the Scottsbluff Star Herald of a rancher and his 15 year old son out fighting the fire, in an effort to keep it from spreading into thier yard. It shows the father with one hose and the son running, dragging another in order to get to a hot spot to put out the fire.

Now, don't get me wrong, the community will be forever grateful for the help from professional firemen, the feds and the local National Guardsmen who were dispatched to the area to help fight the fire. They had airplanes, helicopters, and about 600 people sent in to help.

But you can't help but admire the local people and the way everyone that could pitched in and did something. People and stores donated food, water, gatorade, ice, chapstick and even socks which the firemen filled with ice and wore around their necks for a little relief from the blistering heat of the fire and the weather. People made sandwiches for the firemen, local stores donated food, clothing and other items to those who lost everything when their homes burned.

Mary and Jerrys friends were awesome. One friend had just moved into a new home and were planning on renting the old one, so they told Mary and Jerry they could move right in. Other friends rounded up furniture, pots & pans, etc. and moved the items in for them. Local Attorney, Marty Connealy & his wife were on their way to Omaha to see a new grand baby and just handed Mary the keys to thier 4 BR, 3 BA home and said stay as long as you need, and make yourself at home, We'll be gone a week or so, so the house is all yours until you can make other arrangements.

As emotionally devasting as it was in the beginning, people are beginning to see some humor in the situation. Mary and Jerry had great insurance and thier agent has been a jewel. Jerry was talking to Mary the other day and said, "you know that big bathroom you always wanted? Well now you can have it, we'll put it in the plans when we rebuild the house."

I'm going to be starting 2 nonprofit web sites at cafepress.com, one for Souix County Volunteer Fire & Rescue and one for the Chadron volunteer Fire & Rescue, as of this morning they don't have names yet and I only have 3 items ready, but stay tuned for the links. All profits from the sites will be sent directly to the 2 fire departments. Souix county desparately needs a new ambulance and have been working like little beavers to raise the money so I figure every little bit helps. And you know volunteer fire and rescues always need money for equip and training. The photo above will be the first design to go up, I'll change the text so it can go on both sites.