BRIAN FERRY
Courtesy The Derrick
Rocky Grove volunteers were sent away from the scene after it became known
their comrade had died.
It was cold, clear and calm out side the Zinz home on Keely Road late
Thursday morning when fire fighters from several companies converged.
Inside the home, the scene was different. An inferno was raging.
Smoke -- thick, brown, almost green in the worst areas, and lighter gray,
but
just as thick, where water was sprayed -- was pouring out every window and
door as firemen ran into and out of the burning home.
Flames shot from windows on two sides and both levels of the house.
Members of several companies were fighting to put out the flames -- each
spray of water sending up more thick smoke and contributing to the stream of
water running down the driveway.
Within an hour of beginning the fight, a Rocky Grove firefighter had to be
removed from the building, suffering from the smoke and intense heat.
Aside from the dangers posed by the fire, the firemen had to be concerned
with the integrity of the structure -- a trailer with an addition and a
basement.
Andy White was among the many firefighters who responded to the scene.
He rode with the Rocky Grove units to the site shortly after 11 a.m.
A few hours later the question, '' Where's Andy?'' became the center of
those
firemen's world.
Yelling through windows and searching the basement -- calls to Northwest
Medical Center to see if Andy had been admitted -- flashlights cutting
streaks in the smoke. No sign of Andy.
As the fire renewed in strength at the front of the home hoses blasted,
sending up smoke, steam and spray. There were hoses aimed into the back of
the house, too, and a fireman on the roof was soaking the burning ceiling.
People were yelling into, out of and around the house. The search covered
the
grounds, the vehicles, anywhere a fireman might be.
The calls came back from the hospital -- negative. Andy hadn't reported to
the site coordinator. Searchers couldn't locate him.
An assistant fire chief fired up a chain saw, determined to gain access to
the back of the house. He cut a hole through the wall, giving firefighters
access to a part of the home they'd been having trouble getting to. Firemen
climbed through the hole. End tables, lamps, chairs and debris were thrown
out.
Although the firemen were frantic in their concern for their fellow
firefighter, their search efforts were organized and systematic, all of them
knowing their individual tasks.
Witnesses said Andy's father, John, a fireman and former Rocky Grove chief
also there to battle the blaze, attempted to enter the home to search for
his
son. Other firefighters held him back.
Later, as his son's body was pulled from the rubble, those firefighters were
holding John White up.
The search over and the fire under control, firefighters had time to think
about their comrade -- their loss, his sacrifice.
Tears flowed freely. Men wept. Many stood in a daze, heads down.
Family escapes injury
The family whose home was destroyed in the fire escaped injury.
Virginia Zinz was home at the time the fire broke out. Her daughter, Crystal
Fitzgerald, who had just arrived at the house for a visit with her mother,
saw smoke. Once inside, she lifted her disabled mother and carried her
outside.
'' My sister decided to walk down and visit with her,'' Al Zinz Jr. said. ''
She found the trailer filled with smoke. It was by the grace of God that my
mother survived.''
'' My mother is an amputee,'' Zinz said. '' She would never have gotten out
alone.''
Albert Zinz had gone into town shortly before the fire broke out. '' I stood
over at the intersection waiting for him so he didn't see the fire trucks
and
smoke,'' Al Jr. said. '' He would have had a heart attack thinking of mom in
there.''
'' The sad part is a life had to be lost,'' he said. '' Our hearts go out to
the family who lost a son.''
'' We all appreciate the sacrifice that they're going through tonight,''
Terry Zinz said. '' I can't imagine what they're going through.''
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