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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Too Much Water To Fight Major Fire

Knight-Ridder

First it was a flood, then a fire.

Only hours after Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens told everyone to leave the city Saturday, a downtown block caught fire in the midst of floodwaters so deep pumper trucks couldn’t reach it.

Huge flakes of ash from the Security Building, the first structure to ignite, floated down onto the other buildings late in the afternoon, setting their roofs afire.

More than a dozen people who had refused to leave the Security Building had to be evacuated; two hours later, the flaming building caved in. By nightfall, the three-story building had burned to within 8 feet of the water.

Four firefighters tried to hook a hose to a hydrant in the icy floodwater, planning to connect it to a water cannon on a building roof and shoot out the flames. But the water was so deep they could only pump for two minutes before the fire truck’s engine blew out, sending an oily slick over the floodwater.

Three of the four - Randy Johnson, Mitch Steien and Orlen Anderson - were hospitalized for hypothermia. Johnson, 25, couldn’t talk as he was stripped of his freezing clothes, wrapped in blankets and evacuated.

The roof of First Financial Center soon was billowing with flames. The pressure of the floodwater held the doors shut as fire fighters tried to get in to reach the roof. So a National Guard truck, with a 10-yard running start, smashed through a 15-foot plate glass window to let the firefighters in.

But it was too late to do any good: Fire-bombing planes used in forest fires had flown from northern Minnesota to dump fire-dousing chemicals on top of the buildings - hazardous chemicals for humans to breathe. The firefighters retreated from First Financial as the planes buzzed the city like dive bombers, dropping streams of reddish purple chemicals across downtown Grand Forks.

Fire trucks, unable to get near the buildings burning in 5 feet of water, pulled back to avoid the chemicals. Abandoned cars floating in the streets blocked the trucks’ path.

Crews on a National Guard truck and U.S. Coast Guard boat attempting to evacuate six people believed to be inside the Dakota Hotel were caught in the chemical cloud when it was dropped sooner than expected. They scrambled toward cover yelling “Get into a building, get into a building!”

The Gate City Savings and Loan caught fire, but it went out. Two smaller buildings also burned, and the federal building was in danger. Grand Forks International Airport was sending in a crash truck, and Grand Forks Air Force Base was sending a floating pumper truck. A helicopter dangling an orange basket dipped murky water from the river, drove into the smoke and dumped 100 gallons on the roofs for an hour and a half.

But it appeared to do no good; two thick plumes of black smoke drifted toward the southeast as the day ended. Downtown Grand Forks was pitch black except for the fires.

Firefighter Rob Corbett watched the flames and the flood. He likened them to the computer game Sim City, in which fires and floods attempt to thwart players.

“We’re losing,” he said.

“They’ve trained for some wild scenarios, but nothing like this,” Capt. Duane Lund said of his firefighters.

It was just the latest in a series of disasters that has left Grand Forks reeling this weekend.People in Grand Forks couldn’t - or weren’t supposed to - take showers or use much water.

They couldn’t eat at their favorite restaurants, many of which were closed - along with other businesses - due to flooding or lack of water. Some business owners also paid their employees to help with flood-relief efforts.

They couldn’t get their local newspaper delivered to their homes. The office of the Grand Forks Herald was among the downtown businesses that couldn’t be reached because of the water.

They couldn’t even legally buy a beer; the mayor banned sales of alcohol because she was afraid violence might break out in a city whose residents have seen too many crises and had too little sleep.