Dear Grants City Council.
I stand before you today as a citizen of Grants who unfortunately lost everything on the Alamo fire on E. Sage on the evening of April 27th. To help people understand how fast this fire spread, the first call came in at 7:05 p.m. I was on the phone and abruptly hung up at 7:09 after going outside to see why it was so hazy out my window. Neighbors and GPD were running door to door to tell everyone to get out. The fire started approximately 420 feet from the back west corner of my home. By the time I got to Balsam after Chief Maes went in to get my dog as he would not come out and the back of my home was already on fire, it was 7:13 p.m. I met my family at Allsup’s on Nimitz by 7:22 and the camera on the front of my home showed my house was completely on fire and the food was gone after that.
The wind gusts were brutal that day. Because of the wind gusts, I knew at the time I left my home and had already seen the flames at the back of the house, there was going to be nothing that could happen to save my home. Unfortunately, five more homes to the east of mine were also at a loss due to this fire and from my understanding they were all on fire within 10 minutes of the initial call. Grants Fire, other fire departments, emergency crews, law enforcement and resources from all over the county as well as McKinley County came in to help fight this fire and prevent more loss including a hot shot member that was working the fire while watching his own home burn and citizens helping to pull hoses watching theirs burn. While some of the Hot Shot crews, water trucks and other emergency crews tried to get to the fire as fast as possible, I watched cars and cars of people block ways for them to get to the scene as they were curious as to what was going on, and I was too, it was the same on George Hanosh, Balsam and other surrounding streets.
I want to take the time to say Thank You to Grants Fire Department, Grants Police Department, all fire, emergency personnel and law enforcement from all over. This tragedy could have been a lot worse without your tireless fight to prevent more loss. I also want to thank the City of Grants and its employees for helping to clean up the properties. Thank you to all my family, co-workers, and friends for all your support and prayers, I love you all more than you know and Thank you to this beautiful community that I love. Never in a million years could one see this happening, but this community has come together to support all of us in ways I myself have never seen and could never be more grateful for. There are so many more thank yous that I have, but I will be here all night, and the agenda is long enough, so THANK YOU to everyone.
Let this tragedy be a learning lesson for the future of what we as a community can do to try and prevent this happening again. It is a joint effort from all to do so. And I ask the community, in times like this, please do not go towards the danger, but stay away so that emergency personnel and resources can make it to the scene, as delays can be effective.