Superior Fire Department puts out garage fire
Nick Ianniello
Mineral Independent
A Superior man lost his garage Sunday afternoon when his four-wheel all-terrain vehicle caught fire while he was working on it.
“It sure took me by surprise,” said Russ Caldwell, a gold miner who lives in Superior.
Caldwell, who uses his ATV to access some property he owns in Idaho by driving over Hoodoo Pass, was in the process of taking the tires off of his ATV and replacing them with snow tracks so he could drive his ATV in the snow a little before 1 p.m. Sunday.
Do to the cold weather he had taken his ATV inside his garage to work on it.
Caldwell said that when he started the vehicle, the engine backfired and caught the vehicle on fire. His first reaction was to try to put the fire out, but Caldwell said that soon a gas tank exploded and caught the roof of his garage on fire.
He then called the Superior Volunteer Fire Department. Around 12 fire fighters responded to the fire with three trucks.
“We just focused initially on anything around it, making sure the fire didn’t spread to any building around it,” Superior Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Woodland said.
Fire fighters used hand lines to spray down surrounding buildings and objects, keeping them cool and preventing the fire from spreading.
“We took a conservative, defensive approach to fighting the fire,” Woodland said.
When they felt that they had the situation under control they moved in to try to suppress the fire that, according to Woodland, had already consumed Caldwell’s garage by the time fire fighters arrived.
“It’s the typical garage, there are cans of gasoline and propane and paint and all sorts of highly flammable stuff and plenty of air supply so it was just up and running even before we could get there,” Woodland said.
While firefighters worked to suppress the fire that was burning down Caldwell’s garage, they removed several propane tanks from the vicinity of the fire, and several gas tanks that were in the building exploded as the fire burned.
“There were a couple nice little explosions,” Woodland said.
When fire fighters began directly attacking the garage fire they used a new piece of equipment, a portable hand monitor, to spray down the fire and put it out.
“It worked pretty well and I’m sure everyone was impressed with just how effective it was. I’m sure it’ll come off the truck pretty regularly now in the right set of circumstances,” Woodland said.
No one was hurt in the blaze and Caldwell said that he was glad to have the fire fighters there to help him out.
“I’m glad they came and did what they could do. I’m thankful for that,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell’s fire was one of three that fire fighters in Superior responded to this weekend. Woodland said that Saturday morning fire fighters responded to an oil heater fire on Mullan Road and a chimney fire on Third Avenue Saturday evening. In both instances the fires were small and easily contained.
St. Regis Volunteer Fire Fighters stood as backup while Superior Volunteer Fire Fighters responded to their calls this weekend.