Giving and receiving thanks in wake of fire

In the midst of the West Mullan Fires, Tim and Sara Buchanan received questions from their two children, 11-year-old Wesley and eight-year-old William, regarding the fire – wondering if they and the town would be safe.

One night Sara and Tim were discussing those questions and Sara mentioned that there were probably many more kids asking the same questions.

“That’s when she came up with the idea to get the kids of the community together and make a positive situation out of what was going on,” Tim said. “We were also frustrated with just watching the fire coming closer to our town and feeling helpless so we thought we needed to show the firefighters and volunteers that this community really cared for their efforts. After all these are Fathers, Mothers, Aunts, Uncles, Brothers, Sisters, Sons, and Daughters putting themselves in harms way for our community.”

The result was the pulling together of resources from a variety of sources in the community to provide the children of Superior the opportunity to thank the men and women fighting the fires.

Whether it was Ev Schultz allowing the children to use the Superior High School Art Room or County Secretary Cindy Grimm who got permission to place the finished signs on the court house lawn or businesses who donated to the efforts or residents who gave their time to be chaperones – the community showed up.

And so did the kids.

Over 30 children showed up at the art room to create signs thanking the firefighters for their hard work and service to Superior.

The signs were a reminder to both the firefighters and residents that there was a collective effort of concern and service going on around the clock. A reminder of community and a means of welcome to the visitors of the community fighting to save it.

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On Thursday, July 25 the Wenatchee River Type II IA team from Leavenworth, WA arrived at the Mineral County Courthouse directly from a day of cutting line and other mop-up work.

Their faces were dirty, but their smiles were bright white as they approached where Wesley and William Buchanan were waiting to present them with the signs that had been made for the firefighters.

William was given firefighter gear to throw on and with a smile on his face he grabbed the first sign and slowly walked up to the awaiting firefighters.

Wesley then joined him and the two began giving a sign to firefighters.

“We were fortunate to get them,” Northern Rockies Incident Command Team PIO Pat McKelvey said. “They are trained well and it’s what we needed for this kind of country.”

After the signs were distributed to the firefighters, William and Wesley were given a personal tour of the gear used by Forest Service Firefighters by Nick Merth. Merth showed the two the variety of shovels, axes, chainsaws and survival gear each and every one of his teammates uses on the scene of a fire.

When the two were given a tour of the tools and gear the team holds in their firefighting trucks William was overheard saying “at least you have Gatorade drink” and the two ended things talking on the walkie-talkie with one of the firefighters.

“It was perfect,” William said of the day.

Crew Boss Walter Escobar stood off to the side, taking in his team getting a much needed laugh and often laughing with them.

“This is great,” Escobar said.

“We are just out here to serve the public and it’s really nice of them to do this.”