When a disaster strikes

Monday, May 20, 2013

Early on Friday morning, May 17, a fire broke out on the second floor of one of the buildings in our historic downtown. The Greencastle Fire Department was on the scene three minutes later, but in less than 10 minutes dark billowing smoke could be seen from blocks away.

As I arrived on the site a few minutes later, Chief Bill Newgent, already had set up a command post in the area of the courthouse and called for assistance. Assistant Chief Jeff Mace was coordinating the efforts of the department in the back of the first block on East Washington Street (Wilson's to Starbucks).

As our crews continued to fight what seemed like an ever-growing threat, mutual aid began arriving from departments throughout the county as well as from Avon, Brazil, Crawfordsville, Danville and Plainfield. Even with the addition of reinforcements and equipment this aggressive blaze challenged the units for another two hours.

What was most amazing, and definitely the result of long hours of training and coordination, these departments worked seamlessly to fight back the flames. It is a direct result of their diligent efforts that there wasn't significantly more damage to the block.

At the end of the day, we here in Greencastle have much to be thankful for. First, no one was hurt as a result of the fire.

We have an incredibly well trained and dedicated group of firefighters serving our community and we have friends in other communities ready to come to our aid.

Our city's police force spent the day providing security, traffic control and support.

The water department made sure there was a plentiful supply of water available for the fight and our Department of Public Works worked to re-route traffic and came to help with clean-up.

We are grateful to the Masons for opening their facility to those in need and for our Red Cross, which set up its helping headquarters there.

We had many local restaurants and businesses that provided food and beverages for all of the first responders and we had officials from the state that came to offer their support and assistance.

Do I wish May 17 had been different, definitely. We have much work to do to rebuild and refurbish the buildings affected and their owners and occupants need our continuing help and support, but I am most proud to be the mayor of this Indiana city where people truly care about those they serve, the jobs they do, and their neighbors. Today, we are a city of heroes.

Thank you.

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  • Thanks also to Operation Life for taking care of the firefighters to ensure our health & safety!

    -- Posted by Geologist on Mon, May 20, 2013, at 6:08 AM
  • Thank you to Red Cross Volunteer Chasity Wood and her team! We have a great community and the outreach was out of this world.

    -- Posted by caddy3 on Mon, May 20, 2013, at 8:59 AM
  • So glad to hear no one was injured.

    -- Posted by terricollins13 on Mon, May 20, 2013, at 11:15 AM
  • So great to see a positive article like this. Makes me proud to live here! I am thankful no one was injured in what could have been a terrible situation! Congratulations to all the fire departments here and from many cities nearby and the police on a job well done. Thankful to many of the businesses etc. who gave so generously of their time and money, it is so great to know there are still so many caring and kind people in this area and in the state of Indiana. Very impressive!

    -- Posted by egb on Mon, May 20, 2013, at 10:32 PM
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