Fire damages Northwest Alabamian

HALEYVILLE    -  An electrical fire contained to the press room area of the Northwest Alabamian newspaper office on Monday, Sept. 23, did not result in any injuries to employees, but did cause an evacuation of the building and a temporary shutdown of the business, affecting deadline schedules this week.
NWA Publisher Horace Moore stated the fire was electrical in origin and began in the press room area of the building.
Smoke got into the building’s duct work and ventilation, with smoke traveling throughout the building.  Fire and heat damage were primarily confined to the press room area, officials said.
NWA General Manager Mike Moore had left briefly on an errand and remembers what he saw when he pulled back into the parking lot.
“A massive amount of smoke was rolling out of the building.  My first thought was where are all the employees?  They were all accounted for, coming out within a few seconds,”  Mike said.
“The first responders were arriving also.  Jeff Postell with the Haleyville Fire Department told me to get the power killed coming in both sides of the building,”  Mike recalled. “Alabama Power Company was on the scene quickly.”
Power to the building was shut off and the business closed for the remainder of the day Monday.
The Alabama Fire Marshal’s office was at the building on Tuesday, conducting a room-by-room assessment, before power was restored and operations resumed.   A limited number of employees were allowed to be at the building Tuesday afternoon, in order to meet deadline for this week’s edition of the newspaper.
Crews were expected to be on site the rest of the  week to continue their assessments and to provide restoration work, Horace said.
“The paper will be delayed. There is no way around it,” Horace confirmed.
Business Manager Debbie Bates, an employee of the Northwest Alabamian the past 44 years, noted this was the first time the business had been affected by something of this magnitude.
 When informed about the fire around 11 a.m., Bates was  able to retrieve important office-related items during the evacuation, Bates said.
“I was in the bookkeeping department.  I thought I heard somebody talking loud, but I didn’t know what it was,” Bates recalled.
At that point, Reporter Amy Melson informed Bates’ department they needed to evacuate the building because of a fire, Bates added.
“By the time we got all our stuff gathered up, you could really smell it and see the smoke already in the building,” she pointed out.
Upon evacuating the building and seeing the billowing smoke coming from the building, Bates recalled, “It just made me sick.”
Martha Burleson, who has worked in bookkeeping the past 30 years and has been an employee of the NWA a total of 45 years, recalled she was at her desk working when she heard an employee yelling for everyone to evacuate the building because it was on fire.
“I grabbed my purse and I started saying get my pictures,” Burleson said, adding co-workers removed all of her family pictures from her desk as they evacuated the building.
“It was very scary,” Burleson recalled. “It’s very sad. That is where we have spent our lifetime. I was barely 18-years-old when I started there.  It just unnerved me really bad, and I could not keep from crying.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen and what we were going to do,” Burleson continued.
“I am just thankful to the Lord that it was not a total loss. It could have been worse.”
Advertising Director Christy Aderholt, an employee the past 31 years, recalled she could smell the electrical fire when being told to evacuate the building.
“Then we saw the smoke,” Aderholt stated, adding she too retrieved personal and work related items before evacuating.
“There was no second guessing. You got out and you didn’t go back,” Aderholt stated.
“Looking around and seeing tears and sadness from your family (employees) was the worst part of the fire,”  Mike said.
Approximately 20 employees evacuated from all departments to find black smoke billowing from the right side of the building.
Soon, the scene was filled with a variety of first responders, including fire departments from Haleyville, Bear Creek and Pebble, as well as police departments from Haleyville and Bear Creek the Winston County Sheriff’s Office, Regional Paramedical Service Ambulance and Alabama Power.
Haleyville Fire Department brought multiple units, including their ladder truck, as firefighters geared up with airpacks and other appropriate gear to make interior attacks on the fire.
Mike wanted to do anything he could to help the first responders in their job.
“I wanted to help, but not hinder the first responders that were heading in.  That’s just my personality,”  Mike said.

Two first
responders
suffer heat
exhaustion

Two first responders suffered heat exhaustion while on the fire scene and were treated by medics with RPS then transported for further treatment at Lakeland Community Hospital in Haleyville where they were treated and released, first responders stated.
“For one thing, we’re fighting a fire. That’s rough even in the winter time,” stressed Haleyville Acting Fire Chief Terrell Baccus.
“Even though the humidity is down, the sun is still hot,” Baccus added. “Right now, we’re working on asphalt and you don’t even have to be in turnout gear right now to suffer heat exhaustion.”
Bear Creek assisted with three units, with firefighters  helping Haleyville with the initial  interior attack, noted Bear Creek Fire Captain Jonathan Lewis.
“Moderate to heavy smoke,” Lewis recalled seeing. “I took the thermal imager,  went through the office and make sure the fire didn’t reach the (front) office area. They pretty much had it contained and flames knocked down from the initial attack.”
At this point, firefighters from Bear Creek and Pebble went into the building to extinguish any hot spots, firefighters on the scene said.
Pebble Fire Captain Cameron Miller noted that Haleyville already had the blaze extinguished when he arrived on the scene, so Pebble checked for any hot spots.
“We pulled insulation down and soaked a couple of areas,” Miller said.
Not only did firefighters check for hot spots but exhaust fans were placed to clear smoke from the building, Miller added.
“At the time of the fire, smoke spread throughout the entire structure, so it’s very hard for us to find ways to ventilate properly to get all the smoke out.”

Traffic on Highway 195 blocked

Police blocked traffic on Highway 195  from the area of 17th Avenue to 15th Avenue, due to firefighters having to lay a fire line from a hydrant across the highway, noted Police Investigator Austin Lewis.  The road was shut down for quite some time, with traffic being diverted.

First responders commended

Horace expressed his thanks to all first responding agencies for their hard work and dedication to bring the fire under control and save the structure.
“It’s hot and it was hard to put out,” said Horace, “but they saved our building from burning down. I just want to praise them. Every one of them was awesome.”
“I cannot begin to tell you how great the first responders were,”  Mike said.  They were an inspiration and professionals.  I have such a new understanding of the danger they deal with at any given minute.  I will tell anyone that these professional are priceless to our community.  I am proud of all of them for just doing their job,”  Mike said.
“The Northwest Alabamian is a valuable asset to the City of Haleyville,” Mayor Ken Sunseri stated, “especially keeping the public informed of all the different projects and the different events in our community.
“It’s disheartening that they have had a structure fire,” Sunseri added. “Hopefully, it will be taken care of as soon as possible and normal production will get back.”
Mike is very proud of all the Alabamian’s employees.
“We have some of the most loyal, caring, resilient work family hands down.  That’s becuase of one person - Jesus!  We know as Christians we are promised that God is in us and will take care of us,”  Mike said.

“The number one thing,” Burleson continued, “is everybody got out safe, and no one is hurt. That is what counts. Things can be replaced, but I am just thankful that everybody is OK.
“I am thankful to the good Lord that it is all going to be able to be fixed back,” Burleson added. “The number one thing is we’re all still close.  Everybody loves each other.  We were all there for each other. That is a blessing to me.”
Bates added, “I’ve been here a long time and never really ever worried about not having a job. It makes you appreciate your job when  you see something like that happening.
“We’ve always had a place to work.  Everything has always run smoothly. It was devastating to think about not having it,” Bates added.
“I am thankful to the good Lord we have a place to go to work,” Bates added. “We all care about each other. It’s a family. Until you think you are not going to have a place to go to work, it makes a difference.”
Aderholt concluded, “What a blessing the  building was saved. There were no injuries.
“We had some quick-thinking people inside to work with,” Aderholt added. “We are not going to be out of a job. We are grateful for that.
“We work for some good men,” Aderholt said. “Horace and (General Manager) Mike Moore can’t be beat.”