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Tusayan firefighters fight blaze around gas, ammo

The Tusayan Fire Department responded to a fire near Valle on the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 25, extinguishing a blaze in a trailer containing gas and ammo.

According to Tusayan Fire Chief Robbie Evans, there were 10 five-gallon cylinders of liquid propane gas, five pounds of black powder and 2,000 rounds of ammunition on site at the trailer, located off Woodland Ranch Road.

Responding immediately from Tusayan were Evans and Lara Pitsinger, as well as three members of the TFD Fire Academy, with the department's 5,500-gallon engine. Two officers later arrived in another truck.

"This was their last class," Evans said of the trainees.

Two members of the Ponderosa Fire Department also heard the alarm and responded with a wildland fire truck. The Valle Fire Department provided a 2,000-gallon tanker.

Evans said that the blaze was brought under control in about a half hour.

"It didn't take very long to get it under control once it started sprinkling and raining," he said. "We knocked it down in about 30 minutes."

He said they saved the LPG cylinders though the ammo and black powder went up before they got there.

"There were some good explosions," he said. "But when canned food gets hot, it explodes. There were a lot of warm beans hanging around."

The fire was started by a space heater.

Evans said that the out-of-district response underscores the need for a solution to the lack of fire support between Tusayan and Williams. Tusayan's fire district ends where the power lines cross the road south of Grand Canyon Airport and Valle has been unable to staff and fund a volunteer department for more than two years.

"Most of the people who live in Valle work here, so how can you not go?" he said. "But this was a red flag. If it had been 80 or 90 degrees, it would have put us in a world of hurt though it's a good thing Grand Canyon is there as a fire break. At some point something major will burn up down there, and we'll have someone trapped in a car or a medical call in Tusayan itself. I don't know what the cure is."

In May the department plans a multi-agency exercise with a bus crash simulation.


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