Ripple effect of tragedy (Oct 23, 2009)
Posted by Reel Mountain Theater on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
A (our) small community is good.
Monday
morning just before it was time to awaken the kids for school, we (your
volunteer firefighters) were paged for a structure fire downtown.
Adrenaline rushed my system and the next 12 hours went by very quickly.
A combination of emotions take over on every call, but this one was
different. As I stood in the smoke and felt the heat as I was
engineering the water supply with one of the fire engines, my pocket
buzzed all morning. I was unable to even look at my phone until much
later in the day, but found that the devastating impact of this fire
was felt across the country. More than on any other incident I can
recall, I fielded questions from local friends and contacts across
America about a huge range of concerns. Was it our theater? What
started the fire? Why weren't firefighters allowed inside? Would having
a fire district change the outcome of this (or any future) fire? How
much damage was there to friends' businesses (affected business owners
couldn't get a look inside the scene until very late in the day), and
on and on.
Every one of the folks that phoned or hollered across the street at me were impacted very intimately by this tragedy. That they would consider their relationship with me as a way to assuage their concerns was complimentary and humbling. Even though I couldn't efficiently calm their fears that day, the situation reassured me that living in Estes Park is a good place for our family to be.
The small network of contacts in every one of our social circles, and that it's possible to have the Mayor's number programmed in your cell phone- or have a close friendship with the newspaper publishers- or be on a first name basis with most of the business owners along the downtown strip - sets our community apart from most others.
I was most surprised by the number of people that I talked with on the scene that were comfortable enough in our theater relationship to freely ask questions about the incident, the pending ballot issue and my involvement with the fire department over the last 19 years. That's YOU folks! I won't press a political agenda, but I will make myself available to field your questions as an individual tax payer and citizen- just like you- if you want to talk about anything I've raised here.
Thanks for being "our" small community. Let's take an interest in our neighbors that have been devastated, and see what we can do to help?
Every one of the folks that phoned or hollered across the street at me were impacted very intimately by this tragedy. That they would consider their relationship with me as a way to assuage their concerns was complimentary and humbling. Even though I couldn't efficiently calm their fears that day, the situation reassured me that living in Estes Park is a good place for our family to be.
The small network of contacts in every one of our social circles, and that it's possible to have the Mayor's number programmed in your cell phone- or have a close friendship with the newspaper publishers- or be on a first name basis with most of the business owners along the downtown strip - sets our community apart from most others.
I was most surprised by the number of people that I talked with on the scene that were comfortable enough in our theater relationship to freely ask questions about the incident, the pending ballot issue and my involvement with the fire department over the last 19 years. That's YOU folks! I won't press a political agenda, but I will make myself available to field your questions as an individual tax payer and citizen- just like you- if you want to talk about anything I've raised here.
Thanks for being "our" small community. Let's take an interest in our neighbors that have been devastated, and see what we can do to help?
