Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408150066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A 150-foot wall of flame that swept in front of them was one of the adventures recounted by Virginians home Sunday from firefighting in Washington's Okanogan National Forest.
"I'm telling you, it was a great fire show," said Joby Barnes, 25, a Jefferson National Forest technician from New Castle. A veteran of the 1988 Yellowstone fires, she was one of 101 Virginians who were in Washington more than three weeks.
Her crew succeeded in saving an old Thunder Mountain cabin used by hikers. The fire, now contained, spread over 9,000 acres of one of the nation's best-known lynx habitats.
It was the first western fire for Ron Nixon, 29, a Blacksburg forestry technician, and Kevin Lamb, also 29, a Blue Ridge Parkway ranger. The dryness of the West's many spruces and firs - "like your Christmas tree that's been in the house for weeks" - produced fires more volatile than they'd seen before.
The only injury was when a guy tripped over a log and wrenched his shoulder.
When temperatures dipped to 45 degrees and heavy rains came, they hiked to town, and a lounge owner treated them to food and drinks. "People couldn't believe we'd come all the way from the East to help them," said Bill Marsiglio, 33, a Chesterfield County firefighter who took his vacation to do it.
Others out in Washington included Roanoke County firefighters and others from the National Park Service, the George Washington National Forest and the Park Service Job Corps center in Coeburn.
The walls come tumbling down
Twenty-seven years ago, the architects who designed Community Hospital decided its parking lots should resemble a masonry maze.
So brick walls were erected to shield the cars, from whatever. Now they're coming down.
Why? The answer is partly maintenance, partly aesthetics, a hospital spokeswoman said. The parking lot defortification, which began a couple weeks ago, is part of a larger scheme to make the facility's exterior more attractive.
"The walls were deteriorating. Instead of replacing them we're bringing them down," said Page Pace, a hospital spokeswoman.
The wall project is the second phase of outdoor improvements. The first phase, better lighting on the hospital grounds, is already complete, Pace said. The third and final phase will bring new signs to the hospital.
What was that strange train?
The Roanoke Valley Resource Authority's Waste Line Express got some national, albeit anonymous, exposure in the Aug. 15 issue of Time magazine. The distinctive train of oversized, bright-green hopper cars was pictured in a business section story about merger talks between several major corporations, including Norfolk Southern and Conrail.
The photo, taken earlier this year by Roanoke photographer Andres Alonso, was one of several sent to the weekly news magazine by Bob Forte, NS vice president for public relations in Norfolk. He also sent along shots of a coal train and a double-stack container train, among others.
Time's picture editor, Michele Stephenson, said she had no idea the train is the only one of its kind in the nation. She chose it, she said, because it went well with a similar picture provided by Conrail.
The picture has not exactly generated an avalanche of interest. Despite the fact that the train is unique, only one person has contacted Forte about the picture, he said, and that was a retired employee from Pennsylvania.
Small satisfaction for a legal loser
Former Christiansburg lawyer Keith Neely has won a $7,500 judgment against a former client whose testimony helped convict him of federal charges.
Neely, who is free on bond while appealing a federal drug conviction, won the judgment in Montgomery County Circuit Court for money he said Leigh Hurst, a former car salesman, owed him in uncollected legal fees.
Hurst provided important testimony for federal prosecutors in Neely's trial. Neely was convicted of using his practice to help smuggle drugs and launder drug profits.
Hurst, who is serving a 10-month sentence in a North Carolina federal prison for money laundering, was not at the hearing.
Neely admits that the judgment gives him a small measure of satisfaction.
"I need the money," he said.
by CNB