Earlier we posted information (including a map) about the funeral arrangements for Gert “Jerry” Marais who was the pilot of the air tanker that crashed on the fire near Fort Carson in Colorado on April 15. Any fire personnel that wish to officially participate or who will have apparatus at the funeral should contact Fort Benton, Montana Fire Chief Pat Hultin at 622-5822 (work) or 788-0721 (cell).
Condolences can be sent to Mrs. Esme Marais, PO Box 1291, Fort Benton, MT 59422.
Photo of single engine air tanker on the Alabaugh fire, South Dakota, July 7, 2007 by Bill Gabbert.
The funeral services for Gert (Jerry) Marais, the pilot who died when his single engine air tanker crashed April 15 on the TA-25 fire near Fort Carson, Colorado, will be in Fort Benton, Montana, on April 25th at 11:00 AM. The service will be at the Montana Agricultural Center, 1205 20th Street.
Information about the final services for the two firefighters who died at the fire near Ordway, Colorado on April 15 is now available.
A joint memorial service for John Schwartz, 38, and Terry DeVore, 30, will be held at Crowley County High School on Saturday, at 602 Main Street in Ordway at 10:00 a.m. (See the map below.)
DeVore and Schwartz were volunteer members of the Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department.
Anyone planning to attend the joint service should arrive at least one hour before it starts. The road damage on Highway 96 has been temporarily repaired, but an alternate route is strongly recommended.
The officers died when their engine crashed on a collapsed bridge on Highway 96 while responding to the fire near Ordway. Two other vehicles also crashed at the same location but their occupants were able to walk away.
As far as we know, information about the services for Gert Marais of Fort Benton, Montana, the pilot of the single engine air tanker who died when his air tanker crashed on the TA25 fire in Colorado on April 15, have not been released. We will post the information here when it becomes available.
The map below shows the location of the joint memorial service for the firefighters from the Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department:
The Denver Post has more information about the deaths of the two firefighters on the fire near Ordway, Colorado April 15. An excerpt:
Wildfires: Duty’s fatal call Lives of 2 fast-responding firefighters cut short at burned-out bridge By Erin Emery and Tom McGhee The Denver Post Article Last Updated: 04/17/2008 06:03:41 AM MDT
ORDWAY — Olney Springs Fire Chief Terry DeVore and firefighter John Schwartz heard the distress call Tuesday afternoon from their neighbors in Ordway and didn’t hesitate. They suited up and zoomed east on Colorado 96.
Right behind them was DeVore’s father, Bruce, a fire department volunteer for 36 years. The fire was bearing down on Ordway, 11 miles away. People were in serious danger. Structures were on fire. The town of 1,200 people was under orders to evacuate.
“We were moving hard,” Bruce DeVore said Wednesday. “Like everybody says, we had the hammer down and we were blowing it by.”
In the dense smoke, he and the firefighters in his truck could barely see the taillights of the firetruck up ahead, but as they approached the intersection with Lane 15, Bruce DeVore told his driver to slow down. They couldn’t see. The taillights ahead had vanished.
“They went out of sight,” Bruce DeVore said. “We hit the heavy smoke. I told Johnny we got to slow this thing down. I don’t feel right.”
Johnny stopped the truck. Only 15 feet ahead, a stretch of Colorado 96 was gone. The bridge over a drainage ditch — an asphalt roadway held up by wooden railroad ties — had collapsed. Terry Devore and John Schwartz were gone, having fallen 15 feet into in a raging inferno.
Bruce DeVore joined his buddies in fighting the fire, pumping everything on board onto the flames. But he knew it was hopeless.
“It was such an inferno,” he said. “It was just a ball of fire. The truck and everything was a ball of fire.”
For the next four hours or so, Bruce DeVore stayed with the fire and prayed that the Lord had taken his son quickly.
“I know he did,” he said. “I know the good Lord was looking over him. No pain. He was gone on impact.”
Crowley County Coroner Karen Tomky said Wednesday that DeVore, 30, and Schwartz, 38, died instantly.
Colorado Department of Transportation spokesperson Stacey Stegman said the bridge that collapsed was a 40-foot-long, two- lane timber structure built in 1937.
“The bridge was structurally sound,” she said. “It was a wooden bridge that burned.”
The fire burned the bridge from underneath, and a pickup fell into the ravine. That driver escaped.
The Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department truck carrying Terry DeVore and Schwartz was right behind the pickup.
Photo courtesy of the Pueblo Chieftan. “Workers begin the task of repairing a bridge on Colorado 96 west of Ordway, which collapsed during a massive grass fire Tuesday.”
This information was just distributed over FireNet. It was released by the Colorado State Fire Chief’s Association today:
It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to you to inform you of the line-of-duty death of three firefighting personnel while serving and protecting the citizens of Colorado.
Fire Chief Terry DeVore and firefighter John Schwartz, Jr. of the Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department were killed late yesterday afternoon while fighting the Ordway wildland fire. Chief DeVore and firefighter Schwartz were killed in their fire apparatus while trying to cross a bridge over a drainage ditch about a mile west of Ordway. Due to heavy smoke conditions they were apparently unaware that the fire had already damaged or collapsed the bridge.
Gert Marais, 42, of Fort Benton, Montana, a U.S. Forest Service contract pilot was killed when his Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) crashed while fighting the wildland fire at Fort Carson. Pilot Marais crashed about 6:20 yesterday evening along Colorado 115 at mile marker 34 near Fort Carson. Marais worked for Aero Applicators, a Sterling company that contracts aerial firefighting services to the U.S. Forest Service.
Both Chief DeVore, 30, and firefighter Schwartz, 38, were volunteers with Olney Springs and worked full-time as correctional officers for the Colorado Department of Corrections at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility.
Chief DeVore is survived by his wife Jennifer and four children, ages 10 to 4. Chief DeVore’s father, Bruce, is also a volunteer firefighter with Olney Springs and was also involved in fighting the Ordway fire. Firefighter Schwartz is the father of four boys, ages 4 to 16.
The Local Assistance State Team (LAST) has been dispatched to Ordway to assist the local fire department. A separate team has been made available to Aero Applicators and the U.S. Forest Service.
On behalf of Chief Douglas Forsman, President of the Colorado State Fire Chiefs’ Association, we wish to offer our deepest condolences to the families of Fire Chief Terry DeVore and firefighter John Schwartz, Jr., the members of the Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department, and the Colorado Department of Corrections. Our deepest condolences are also extended to the family of pilot Gert Marais and the employees of Aero Applicators.
Colorado State Fire Chiefs’ Association
Paul L. Cooke, Executive Director
More details are emerging about the three fatalities on wildland fires in Colorado.
Crowley County Coroner Karen Tomky confirmed that the two fatalities on the fire near Ordway, CO were volunteer firefighters Terry Devore, 30, and John Schwartz, 38. Tomky said the two firefighters were in a fire truck “attempting to cross a bridge that had collapsed”. A map of the Ordway area is in our previous post.
The third firefighter was killed in the Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) that crashed near Fort Carson along Colorado 115. The pilot was the only person on board. The SEAT, owned by Aero Applicators, was based out of Sterling, CO and was contracted by the state. The county sheriff was quoted as saying:
“He dumped his slurry and they say after that it looked like it pulled up and then it just nosedived into the ground,”
Our thoughts and condolences are with the families and co-workers of these firefighters.
Here is a map of the general area of the fire near Fort Carson, the fire on which the SEAT crashed. The location was determined from the spot weather forecast. They are calling it the TA25 fire.
More information about the fires from the Rocky Mountain News:
The devastating grass fire in and around Ordway in southeastern Colorado has burned 8,900 acres, or some 14 square miles, but the blaze now is 60 percent contained, a spokesman for Crowley County Fire said this morning.
Firefighters from 35 agencies continue to battle the fire that erupted Tuesday and that has been linked to three deaths.
Winds blowing at 20 mph and gusting much higher than that could be a great help if they blow back on the grassy areas already burned, creating their own natural firebreak, said Crowley County Fire spokesman Chris Sorensen.
However, the winds are swirling right now, and it’s not clear which direction they’re going to settle on. If they continue to blow out of the north and northeast, as they did Tuesday, they could spread the fire even farther.
Firefighters also are hoping that the 40 percent chance of thunderstorms this afternoon will come to fruition and that the rains will help douse the fire.
“We will certainly take any cooperation the weather will provide,” Sorensen said. The National Weather Service says Ordway has a slight chance of showers between noon and 2 p.m. today then an chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3 p.m. The high temperature should be about 61, some 20 degrees warmer than Tuesday’s high.
Rain is likely again overnight, then snow likely after 4 a.m. Thursday, with a total chance of precipitation at 70 percent.
The fire has burned mostly short-grass prairie, plus some crop lands both east and west of Ordway.
Within the city limits of Ordway, four structures have burned, but fire officials don’t know the extent of their damage, and say the city itself is not a major worry.
The evacuation order for all 1,100 Ordway residents remains in effect, “for their safety and for the safety of the firefighting effort,” Sorenson said.
[…]
The fire at Fort Carson had forced some evacuations late Tuesday and a shelter was set up at a special events center on base, Capt. Gregory Dorman said. The fire had burned about 9,000 acres by late Tuesday and was about 50 percent contained, officials said.
On Tuesday, much of the state was under a National Weather Service red flag warning, signifying high fire danger. Gov. Bill Ritter declared a state of emergency, freeing up state resources to help fight the fire. The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday night Humidity was low in Ordway on Tuesday and temperatures were in the 80s.
Photo of single engine air tanker on the Alabaugh fire, South Dakota, July 7, 2007 by Bill Gabbert.
