By Don Coleman
KJCT8
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A pair of Grand Junction firefighters offer a clearer picture of what led to a mayday situation at White Hall last September on their way to being honored by the city.
Captain Clark Thompson and Firefighter Jerome Gardner are the latest to be awarded the Medal of Merit in Grand Junction. Both men had a strong hand in rescuing Firefighter Cory Black after he fell through a hole and became trapped during the fire on September 15.
It was a Thursday morning — one firefighters and the community remember vividly, still, months later.
“We were dispatched to smoke check in the area of White Hall,” Thompson recounted. “It was more fire than we could put out.
“On our way there, we soon realized that it was an actual fire,” Gardner chimed in. “When we get something like this, it brings us all together and we realize why we’re doing this job.”
First to arrive on the scene, Thompson’s team launched into full attack mode. “We got to the fire and were able to knock down one of the rooms,” Thompson said.
But, just 15 minutes into the fight, the team’s responsibility quickly shifted to a rescue mission. “As I turned around to pull line, that’s when I saw Jerome looking through a hole in the floor,” Thompson said.
Twenty-one minutes after starting work on the fire, a mayday was called. “It was scary,” Thompson recounted. “Firefighter Black was my responsibility.”
Firefighter Cory Black, one of their own, had fallen through a hole feet first into the flames. He landed on his back and suddenly radioed for help himself.
“I was there and watched it,” Gardner remembered. “My first thought was ‘He’s in big trouble.’”
In the interest of safety, all crews backed out of the building to regroup. With no time to spare, Thompson and Gardner decided to go back in after Black. Meantime, other firefighters worked to find any way inside the old building.
“Through research, we had noted that White Hall was one of the buildings in our district that could definitely be hazardous,” Thompson explained.
“You [couldn’t] see a whole lot, the smoke was banked down pretty good, [and] the heat was pretty hot.”
“There was a hose line that was charged and whipping around,” Gardner added. “I tried to call out to [Black], but it was very loud and I couldn’t hear anything.”
For these men, the task couldn’t be more important. Miraculously just four minutes later, all three men were safely out of the building; Firefighter Black was not even injured. “You never want to come out with one person less than what you came in for,” Thompson said.
And even though crews knew this building couldn’t be saved, Black still demanded to get back inside. “It says a lot about him and his character,” Thompson said. “He wanted to get back into the game.”
Republished with permission from KJCT8