Thankfully, this blog provides a format to include some of the material we had to leave out.
One story that did not come out during the original coverage Bridger Hall fire was one that NWC instructor Gary Sturmer said he laughs about now, though it wasn’t funny at the time. Sturmer said a student’s vehicle was parked in front of Bridger Hall when the fire broke out, and it blocked the space needed to park a second fire engine.“We had to find out who it belonged to by the license number, and the keys got sent to me,” he said.
Quickly, Sturmer jumped into the driver’s seat and started the vehicle, intent on moving it out of the way. Unbeknownst to him, the student had left his stereo with the volume cranked all the way up. As soon as he turned the ignition, “It’s just doing a big, huge booming base,” he said. “The car was probably worth about $1,500, but it had something like a $9,000 stereo system.”
That fancy stereo system came equipped with a security device that prevented any tinkering with the system — including adjusting the volume.
“You had to have a security code to access the controls,” Sturmer said.
Jeremy Johnston heard the commotion as he was helping firefighters nearby. “I could hear this BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. My first reaction was, ‘Why is Gary listening to that stereo?"
Meanwhile, Sturmer gave up on adjusting the volume and, accompanied by the ear-splitting noise, drove the car and parked it out of the way.
“That stereo probably had every anti-theft device available,” Johnston said. “Gary probably suffered a hearing loss from it.”Johnston told about his experiences when he was going through rooms to get students’ possessions and return anything salvageable to them.
“It was an emotional roller coaster,” Johnston said of his work to recover students’ belongings.
“The first room I helped clean out belonged to a young lady. I think she had the entire clothing line from every major clothing line, including Victoria's Secret. How she managed to pack everything in that small room, I have no idea.
“It was a little uncomfortable going through the personal things in kids’ rooms,” he added.
In another instance, “One kid had every video game, TVs, DVDs, all kinds of electronics. The ultimate thing he wanted to make sure was save was this signed guitar. Fortunately, he had put it away in a closet, and there was nothing wrong with it. When he found out his signed guitar was OK, he was ecstatic.
“After he decided his guitar was OK... he wanted us to salvage his fish tank. There's nothing like the smell of dead goldfish that have been through a fire and all that. The mixture of dead fish, smoke, the water in there starting to mildew — that was hard to get through that.”
More often than not, the news about belongings wasn’t good. Textbooks were burned or waterlogged; clothing and photo albums were destroyed.One thing that worked to the college’s favor was the fact that the Powell Volunteer Fire Department had just moved to its new facility on South Street, vacating the former building on Bent Street and Coulter Avenue. The empty building became a center where belongings could be sorted through and, as often was necessary, left out to dry.
Johnston said it was interesting to see how randomly the fire and water had damaged the building and the students’ belongings.
The room where the fire started, you’d see these cabinets that were just scorched, but inside drawers, it was as if nothing had happened,” he said. With the water damage, it was kind of hit and miss. Some of the things in the cabinets were OK; others were soaked.”
Johnston said the Frisby Building, northeast of Bridger Hall, was shut down for about a week while it was cleared of smoke and cleaned.
“Everything just stunk and smelled like smoke,” he said. “It just permeated everything. It seems like it was about a month before most of that smell went away.”
For some, the fire brought back specters from the past.
Lindy Minick Nielsen, who was the resident director at Bridger Hall at the time, had experienced an apartment fire a year earlier as a university student in another state. She said the Bridger Hall fire stirred up those memories and added its own trauma to them, but it also helped her understand the trauma the students were experiencing.
"Coming around the corner and seeing that monstrous flame coming out of the window was one of the single-most scary moments of my life," she said.
"I remember that I held out my arms and said, 'Let's huddle up.' I had no idea where my RAs were, so I just barely eeked out the words, 'Line up by room order.'
"Immediately, the students were so amazing. They used the buddy system and were able to account for everyone except three people — so crazy I can still remember their exact names."
Instructor Floyd Young chose to help from the sidelines by offering the Trapper Gym to house displaced students, then arranging for mattresses to be delivered and security arrangements made.
“I was a behind-the-scenes guy,” he said. “I can’t be near a fire. When I was a little-bitty guy (5 years old), I was in a house fire, and I was trapped. Everybody thought I was out. I knocked and knocked on a big picture window, but nobody could see or hear me. A firefighter finally saw me, and told me to get back. He broke the window and rescued me.”
Those memories were as vivid as ever during the Bridger Hall fire. Even as Young made preparations to help students, “I could see Bridger Hall burning down through the window.”
Everyone I spoke to said one of the biggest things that stands out about the Bridger Hall fire was the amazing response of everyone on campus and the community.
Aramark, the company that provides meals on campus, came to the rescue with food and water for the firefighters.
“I think every employee and almost every student that was on the campus jumped in (to help),” said Dee Havig, NWC residence and campus life director. “People even putting their backpacks down, saying, ‘What can I do to help?’ The campus — everything just shut down. Everybody was out helping. It’s a pretty warm feeling when you see that.”
Donations of food, drinks, beds, linen, clothing and hygiene supplies poured in from members of the community and from area stores.“The community spirit here, just how tight-knit of a community this is, just amazed me, Johnston said. “People came forward and raised money to help students get back on their feet, clothing them, in some cases, just taking them in. That night, I don’t think anybody stayed in the gym. They all found somebody to stay with, on campus or off. It just really demonstrated to me how the campus could come together as a team — helping students, caring for their needs, cleaning up.”
It wasn’t long before relief efforts expanded throughout the Big Horn Basin and to Billings, as well as some college campuses nationwide.
Kim Mills, vice president of administrative services, said it’s interesting that the things he remembers most about the fire are the positive things that happened as a result.
“You remember the good things, and you move on,” he said.
