Chris Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times
GARDEN CITY, Utah. April
17, 2014. A rapidly burning fire completely destroyed a new cabin on the South
Sweetwater Parkway. The cabin, owned by
Wendy Williams of Brigham City, Utah, was engulfed in flames in a matter of
minutes. No one was in the cabin at the
time of the fire, which started in daylight near evening.
The Garden City Fire Department
and the Laketown Fire Department responded with speed and with multiple pieces
of equipment and manpower. After
initially controlling the main blaze with large amounts of water the charred
walls were still upright but bowed and tilted, threatening a collapse in
subsequent hours so Garden City Fire Chief Mike Wahlberg decided to allow the
fire to continue from the bottom in a controlled way (the cabin was already a
complete loss) until the walls collapsed, removing the danger of further injury
from such a collapse at a later time.
When danger from collapse was removed and the house was down, the
department applied enough water to extinguish the fire completely. Multiple units from Garden City Fire District
and Laketown Fire District responded during the event.
Bob Stevens, Bear Lake Water
Company, engaged a second pump on the hillside to assure adequate water flow to
the hydrants which was entirely successful.
Bill and Barbara England of Bear
Lake Pizza brought water and food to firefighters during the nearly five hour
active fire fighting.
Andy Stokes, Tom Wahlberg, and
Chief Mike Wahlberg took turns during the night staying on scene to make sure
no further fire restarted, and in the morning equipment returned and again
applied water to the debris.
In a strange coincidence the
Garden City Fire Department had 4 times conducted training exercises on the
house directly across the street so the firefighters were completely familiar
with the terrain and water sources (hydrants and water on board the fire
trucks).
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