A8 Saturday, May 26, 2012
NATION/OBITUARIES
Roswell Daily Record
Hot, windy weather raises Colorado wildfire danger DENVER (AP) — Heavy air tankers and thousands of firefighters were on standby Friday as fire managers kept a close watch on high winds and hot temperatures at the start of the Memorial Day weekend.
Fire crews and land management agencies were fully staffed across the state for the fire season, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Steve Segin said.
Two heavy air tankers have been taken to Grand Junction in western Colorado, the area where the fire danger is highest in the state, Segin said.
OBITUARIES
Gladys Annette Norman
Gladys Annette Norman, 75, died on Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Lubbock, Texas. She was born April 28, 1937, in Dimmitt, Texas, to Walter Elbert Griffith and Johnnie Bob Davenport, who are both deceased. Her parents moved to Roswell when she was very young. She married Lionel Reed Nor man in June 1955. Lionel preceded her in death in June 2006. Annette is survived by sons, Lionel Eugene Norman and his wife Linda and their children, Briana Renae and Kyle Reed, of Albuquerque, Donald Michael Norman and his wife Jamie, and their daughter Ashley Michelle, of Rowell; and daughter, Alice Ann Nor man, of Roswell. Annette had three siblings, two of whom survive her, Curtis Griffith, of Rio Rancho, and L ynette Grant, of Hagerman. Her brother, Harry Don Griffith, preceded her in death. Annette began her successful career as a cosmetologist in Roswell, and owned Annette’s Beauty Salon, for more than 25 years. When Annette chose to semi-retire, she continued her career and found her home away from home at Town and Country Wig & Beauty Salon. She loved her customers and colleagues and considered them friends and family. They were all very important to her. Annette had many talents, but her true passion was gardening. She loved plants, and her yard looked like an English garden. Annette loved animals, which included several box turtles, pond turtles, fish, cats, and her beloved Shelties, Bella and Hope. She dearly loved her family, and valued every moment she could spend with them. Annette was a hard worker who put others before herLeave your mark
“We’ve got the resources, we’ve got the firefighters. We’re ready,” Segin said. The National Weather Service said wind gusts could reach 70 mph Saturday in some wester n Colorado valleys, with sustained winds of 25 to 40 mph. Most of western Colorado was under a highwind warning. Parts of Teller and Fremont counties in the central Colorado mountains were under a red-flag war ning, meaning high winds, hot temperatures and low humidity could create dangerous fire conditions. Most of easter n Col-
self. Lastly, Annette was a faithful member of the Church of God, in which she was baptized in the late 1950s. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Rom 8:28 There will be a memorial service for Annette on June 10, 2012, in Roswell.
Betty Adams
Betty Adams passed away May 18, 2012, at her home. She was bor n April 4, 1938, to Peggie McNair and Johhny Dawson, who preceded her in death. She married Marvin Coleman in 1952; he passed away in 1958. She then married James (Jim) Houston, of Califor nia. They divorced and she married Jerry Adams, of Roswell, in 1978. He worked for the Roswell Post Of fice and passed away three years ago. She was the fourth of six children. All but Audrey Waters preceded her in death. Betty had five children, two of whom preceded her in death, Marvin Coleman Jr., of Roswell, and Dennis Houston, of California. Survivors include Mary Tuck and James Houston, of California, and Peggie Roberson, of Roswell. Betty adopted Johnnie Adams, of Texas, in 1975. She had 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Betty will be laid to rest on May 29, 2012, in Jal. If you would like information, you can email Growth_Recovery@yahoo.co m. She had a lot of lifetime friends in Roswell. We, the family, thank you.
Jo B. Denison
Services are pending at Ballard Funeral Home and Crematory for Jo B. Denison, 82, who passed away Friday, May 25, 2012, in Roswell. A further announcement will be made once arrangements have been finalized.
Arline L. Mensing
Services are pending at Ballard Funeral Home and Crematory for Arline L. Mensing, 90, who passed away Friday, May 25, 2012, in Roswell. A further announcement will be made once arrangements have been finalized.
Volunteer
orado was under a highwind watch, with sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts up to 55 mph possible on Saturday. Fire danger also was expected to be high in the souther n Colorado foothills and the South Park area on Saturday, said Kyle Fredin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Conditions should improve by Sunday, with calmer winds and lower temperatures, he said. Segin said visitors to Colorado’s parks should check with county sheriff’s offices about fire restrictions. He also stressed
that campfires should be completely extinguished because that’s how many fires are started. Colorado has already endured three big wildfires this year. A fire that started May 14 scorched 12 square miles 20 miles northwest of Fort Collins, forcing the evacuation of about 80 homes. Federal prosecutors charged 56-year -old James J. Weber of Fort Collins with starting the fire. He told investigators his camp stove started the fire and he was unable to stamp it out. The U.S. Forest Service
said it plans to pursue restitution from Weber. The cost of fighting the fire was put at about $3 million.
In late March, the Lower North Fork Fire 25 miles southwest of Denver killed three people and damaged or destroyed more than two dozen homes. That fire was the result of a prescribed burn that grew out of control after it was set by the State Forest Service.
A wildfire caused by a downed power line in Colorado’s rural northeastern plains near the ColoradoKansas-Nebraska border in mid-March forced the
evacuation of 200 to 300 homes and injured three firefighters. The Yuma County fire, which burned 37 square miles, destroyed two homes and two farmsteads and was blamed for the loss of at least 40 to 50 cattle. Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Theo Stein said it’s important for everyone to be mindful of fire whether hiking, camping or barbecuing in backyards. “This is one of busiest weekends of the year for state parks, and nothing would ruin a visit more than having to leave because of something someone else did,” Stein said.
50 years on, fire still burns under Centralia CENTRALIA, Pa. (AP) — It’s an anniversary the few remaining souls who live here won’t be celebrating. Fifty years ago on Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia — a whole community of 1,400 simply gone. All these decades later, the Centralia fire still burns. It also maintains its grip on the popular imagination, drawing visitors from around the world who come to gawk at twisted, buckled Route 61, at the sulfurous steam rising intermittently from ground that’s warm to the touch, at the empty, lonely streets where nature has reclaimed what coal-industry money once built. It’s a macabre story that has long provided fodder for books, movies and plays — the latest one debuting in March at a theater in New York. Yet to the handful of residents who still occupy Centralia, who keep their houses tidy and their lawns mowed, this borough in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania is no sideshow attraction. It’s home, and they’d like to keep it that way. “That’s all anybody wanted from day one,” said Tom Hynoski, who’s among the plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit aimed at blocking the state of Pennsylvania from evicting them. Centralia was already a coal-mining town in decline when the fire department set the town’s landfill ablaze on May 27, 1962, in an illfated attempt to tidy up for Memorial Day. The fire wound up igniting the coal outcropping and, over the years, spread to the vast network of mines beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes. After a contentious battle over the future of the town, the side that wanted to evacuate won out. By the end of the 1980s, more than 1,000 people had moved and 500 structures demolished under a $42 million federal relocation program. But some holdouts refused to go — even after their houses were seized through eminent domain in the early 1990s. They said the fire posed little danger to their part of town, accused government officials and mining companies of a plot to grab the rights to billions of dollars’ worth of anthracite coal, and vowed to stay put. After years of letting them be, state officials decided a few years ago to take possession of the homes. The state Department of Community and Economic Development said Friday it’s in negotiations with one of the five remaining
Route 61 in Centralia, Penn., is eroded and covered in graffiti.
homeowners; the others are continuing to resist, pleading their case in federal court. Residents say the state has better things to spend its money on. A handwritten sign along the road blasts Gov. Tom Corbett, the latest chief executive to inherit a mess that goes back decades. “You and your staff are making budget cuts everywhere,” the sign says. “How can you allow (the state) to waste money trying to force these residents out of their homes? These people want to pay their taxes and be left alone and live where they choose!” Whether it’s safe to live there is subject to debate. Tim Altares, a geologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said that while temperatures in monitoring boreholes are down — possibly indicating the fire has followed the coal seam deeper underground — the blaze still poses a threat because it has the potential to open up new paths for deadly gases to reach the remaining homes. “It’s very difficult to quantify the threat, but the major threat would be infiltration of the fire gases into the confined space of a residential living area. That was true from the very beginning and will remain true even after the fire moves out of the area,” Altares said. Nonsense, say residents who point out they’ve lived for decades without incident.
AP Photo
Carl Womer, 88, whose late wife, Helen, was the leader of a faction that fiercely resisted the government buyout, disagrees the fire poses any threat. “What mine fire?” Womer asked dismissively as he hosed down his front porch, preparing, he said, for a Memorial Day picnic. “If you go up and see a fire, you come back and tell me.” Author and jour nalist David DeKok, who’s been writing about Centralia for more than 30 years, said that while he believes Womer’s house is too close to the fire to safely live there, Hynoski and his neighbors are far enough away. “I don’t think there’s any great public safety problem in letting those people stay there,” said DeKok, author of “Fire Underground,” a book on the town. Many former residents, meanwhile, prefer to talk about the good times, their nostalgia taking on a decidedly golden hue. “I loved it. I always liked Centralia from the time I was old enough to understand what it was,” said Mary Chapman, 72, who left in 1986 but returns once a month to the social club at the Centralia fire company. “If you came out of your house and you couldn’t get your car started, the neighbor would come out and he’d help you. You didn’t even have to ask,” Chapman continued. “Of course the neighbors knew your business, but they also were there to help you, too.”