FTLComm - Tisdale - November 24, 1999 Pictures by: Larry Parks
On Monday morning the large back hoe had completed the knocking down of the first portion of the old Smith Hatchery building when the rubble pile burst into flames. With an abundance of fuel with the building broken into splinters and open to the air there was serious concern about being able to contain the fire. Tisdale's volunteer fire department were on hand immediately and began a vigour attack on the blaze.
Larry Parks, manager of Beeland Coop and the man behind getting the new Coop Cardlock facility up and running took these pictures as he approached the fire. The dense smoke from the sawdust and attempts to put the fire out filled the area choking off traffic and forcing the evacuation of the nearby 7-11.
Below right is the believed source of the blaze although the exact combination of fuels and batteries is still not known that produced the fire. This part of the old building is very close to the Coop's new tanks and though they got pretty dirty they survived the fire because of the efforts of the fire department who kept them hosed down in water . These tanks are Northern Steel Industries double walled tanks and though they can handle some heat an intense fire that close to half filled fuel tanks is a scary situation.
Larry Parks was able to capture this event with is camera and though we are a couple of days late Ensign is pleased to be able to show you these remarkable images.