Gathering together to fight for friend’s home

JAMES PRIBRAM

“Everyone out the house. The house is on fire.”

Slowly turning in the direction of the eerily calm voice of Jesse

Gowers my first sight was of thick black smoke beginning to billow

out from the bedroom directly in front of me.

A group of friends had gathered at the home of Jesse and Jennifer

Gowers for a little Christmas cheer. It was a hillbilly Christmas

theme complete with Blue Ribbon beer, meat loaf sandwiches, a huge

country steak potpie and much more in the way of hillbilly goodies.

Startled and scared, I ran through the house to get my girlfriend,

Dominique, and everyone else out of the house. Most were enjoying

themselves outside on the deck.

When I ran back inside the house to help it looked like a scene

from the movie “Backdraft.” OK, maybe not quite that extreme but

pretty close.

After a classic exchange of words that can’t be repeated in my

G-rated column, Jesse, Mike Klosterman and Ky Garmhauser successfully

battled the blaze. In true firemen fashion, Ky was down low in a

crouching tiger position with a garden hose in hand just battling. I

looked down at him and my first thought was, “This guy’s gnarly.”

Jesse too, he was going after this fire with a personal vengeance.

Not to be out done, Mike improvised by grabbing the huge ice-filled

bucket of Blue Ribbon beers and dousing the flames with it. Classic

Mike.

After a few anxious minutes, I am happy to report that they

successfully put the fire down.

I wouldn’t recommend battling any blaze if you’re not a

professional firefighter, but in this case we were extremely lucky.

No one was seriously hurt, aside from a couple of minor burns.

As of Tuesday, the full extent of damage is unknown.

However, I do know that without friends and neighbors helping each

other in the good name of holiday cheer, it would have most certainly

been a lot worse.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Peace.