Turning back the pages

30 years ago – January 31, 1986

Sunday and Monday, firefighters were busy putting out two fires that occurred in Gilpin County. On Sunday, the Central City Volunteer Fire Department responded to a grass fire between Gregory Street and the Casey. According to Fire Chief John Reedy, the fire was started by young children that were playing with matches. The fire was contained to a one acre grassy area. Reedy said it “could have developed into a potentially dangerous situation.” There is at least one house that is located close to where the fire occurred. High winds and the lack of moisture, particularly in the southern portion of Gilpin County, are making fires likelier than usual, Reedy said. The Colorado Sierra Volunteer Fire Department responded to a fire on Monday at the Harvey Ranch in the Braecher Meadow, east of Highway 119 in mid-county. According to Fire Chief Doug Miller, a resident in the area reported that a cabin was on fire at 9:47 a.m. Miller said the one room cabin was totally engulfed in flames when the fire department arrived a short time later. The caretakers of the property were not at home when the blaze occurred, Miller said. He said the fire was apparently caused by wind that blew into the pipe on a wood stove with a “faulty connection,” thus causing the ashes to blow out of the stove into the cabin. Miller said lack of moisture in the mid-county area right now is not a problem, but it could be as the year progresses.

Letter to the Editor: Along with the rest of the nation, Gilpin County people were shocked and saddened this week at the sudden disaster with the space shuttle Challenger. Tuesday, people were stunned. Most were speechless. For many, the devastating news evoked memories and feelings of other national disasters—John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Robert Kennedy’s death, and the death of Martin Luther King Jr. The shuttle accident has evinced more emotion than many other tragedies of our time that have cost the lives of many more people. Certainly, we have all been saddened by plane crashes and acts of terrorism, but the shuttle is different. It’s something we expect to be grand and glorious. As it blew apart and crashed into the sea, our expectations crashed with it. We must remember that space exploration is a frontier of mammoth proportions and mammoth potential. Think of the spectacular pictures of Uranus that Voyager has just sent to us. What knowledge they contain and where that knowledge will lead us, no one yet knows, but it can only be forward. The space shuttle is on the verge of showing us the beginnings of the universe. It won’t be too long before a permanent space station obits the earth. These projects must continue as soon as feasible. Tuesday’s tragedy has hurt our national pride, taken away our complacency. But, it should not discourage our determination to be the best we can be, to go where no one has ever been. The seven men and women in the shuttle lost their lives showing us how to do that. Our sympathy today is extended to their families, the nation’s children, and even to ourselves. But the seven who died should be remembered as joyful pioneers—pioneers leading the rest of us to our destiny. Signed, Janet Davis.