Firefighters from Anchorage and Girdwood battled a blaze Jan. 21 at the Department of Transportation maintenance facility for more than two hours. The building and all of the equipment inside were destroyed.
Ken Smith/Turnagain Times photo
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Ken Smith/Turnagain Times photo |
By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times
The State of Alaska Department of Transportation highway maintenance shop burnt to the grown Sunday, Jan. 21. Also lost in the blaze were three snowplows and a front-end loader. Nobody was injured in the fire.
Fire officials estimate that the fire started around 6 a.m. DOT employees Andy Hibbs and Larry Bushnell were first on the scene arriving at the building shortly after 6 a.m.
“We got there, opened the gate and it was burning,” Hibbs said as he sat in a company truck watching firefighters working feverishly to put the fire out. Their job was made that much harder due to the fact that the four DOT vehicles in the building had full gas tanks with more than 500 gallons of highly flammable diesel fuel. There was also 1,000 gallons of other highly flammable material like break fluid, motor oil, and solvent.
“Everything has fuel,” Hibbs said. “Just the tires alone on that loader would burn like heck.”
Hibbs said the company had a contingency plan and replacement equipment was being sent that day. The facility is in charge of clearing snow and maintaining the Seward highway from Mile 103 at Indian to Placer River at Mile 75. They also maintain the road to the Girdwood airport and Alyeska Highway. Plows from Palmer and Chulitna maintenance stations are being used to replace the lost equipment along with a rented front-end loader.
“We wanted to get in and get the equipment out, but there was too much snow. We couldn’t get in,” Hibbs said.
The metal maintenance building was built in 1968 and located on Toad Stool Road in Old Girdwood near the railroad tracks.
“I watched it get built, now I’m watching it go away,” said Hibbs.
Old Girdwood has no fire hydrants and there was no water line at the DOT facility, so firefighters had to set up portable tanks and truck the water to the fire. Girdwood Fire Chief Bill Chadwick said they had to use a fire hydrant at the Mercantile grocery store, trucking the water to the portable tanks. Firefighters drove six miles round-trip each time, transporting more than 2,000 gallons of water.
The Anchorage fire department responded with six units, including one ladder truck, and 17 Girdwood volunteer firefighters were on location with six units. It took firefighters two and a half hours to finally get the fire under control.
The cause of the fire was determined to be falling ice that slid down the roof and pinched an electrical service conduit causing a short circuit.
“We went straight to that because we knew where the fire started,” said Chadwick. “We could see the other end of the burnt wires. The conduit was burnt and melted like somebody welded the wires together.”
And if the fire wasn’t enough of a challenge for firefighters, there was also a 45-foot radio antenna perched precariously on the roof of the building.
“We did not want the tower to fall on it,” said Chadwick. “It was a big steel antenna, but eventually it fell down into the fire.”
The equipment lost in the fire is estimated to be about $800,000, and the loss of the building $200,000.