Neighbors’ teamwork saves homes in Piñon Pines

  • Piñon Pines resident Steve Newman (left) uses a garden hose to keep flames from moving north along a wood fence to a stand of trees between two homes. Joe Fuess (right) runs to tear apart the fence to remove fuel from the fire’s path toward the homes. [photo by Gary Meyer]

    Piñon Pines resident Steve Newman (left) uses a garden hose to keep flames from moving north along a wood fence to a stand of trees between two homes. Joe Fuess (right) runs to tear apart the fence to remove fuel from the fire’s path toward the homes. [photo by Gary Meyer]

By Gary Meyer

Just before 10:10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14, Joe Fuess was in Piñon Pines using an acetylene torch to cut a padlock from the lid of a 5,000-gallon water tank. Sparks flew into grass at the base of the tank. Things became very dangerous, very quickly.

“Within 15 seconds the fire was…

Photo captions:

Piñon Pines resident Steve Newman (left) uses a garden hose to keep flames from moving north along a wood fence to a stand of trees between two homes. Joe Fuess (right) runs to tear apart the fence to remove fuel from the fire’s path toward the homes.

(l-r) Cody Draa, Nick Duhm and Luke Francis jumped yard fences to reach the fire in the first minutes.

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This is part of the August 22, 2014 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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