ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997 TAG: 9703130076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HARDY
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Terry Oakes spent almost five hours fighting a fire at the Hardy Community Center on Tuesday night; he was back again Wednesday afternoon, hosing down a couple of hot spots.
The fire burned what some residents called the Hardy Civic Center and melted siding on the Hardy Volunteer Fire Company station house, about 15 feet away.
"I've never been so scared in my life," said Oakes, the first volunteer firefighter to arrive as flames were shooting out of the building on Hardy Road.
"I was afraid because it was so close to our firehouse. I was afraid we were going to lose the firehouse when I first got here," said the 26-year-old Oakes, who lives about eight houses down the road from the community center, which is owned by the fire department.
The first thing he did was pull the two fire trucks out of the bay of the fire station. As he was driving the trucks out, other volunteers arrived to fight the blaze and water down the fire station.
Firefighters had problems getting enough water because there are no hydrants in the neighborhood. Fire trucks had to get water from a Smith Mountain Lake tributary about a mile away.
After battling the fire Tuesday, Oakes took a vacation day from his job at the Advance Auto distribution center. Instead of resting, though, he was at the fire station.
No one was in the firehouse or the center when the fire began about 7:30 p.m., but residents who called 911 reported seeing flames inside the center.
Investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the blaze late Wednesday.
An insurance agent on the scene Wednesday said the building was insured for $90,000 and the contents for $10,000. There was no estimate on the damage to the fire station's siding.
Dave Nichols, Bedford County's public safety director, said he's sure the fire department will replace the center.
The center, built in the early 1950s by a group of Hardy-area residents, had been a community focal point. Quite a few residents drove by Wednesday to see the damage, said Tim Murphy, a volunteer firefighter who works at Wheeler's Garage across the road.
He lives about six minutes from the center and said by the time he arrived at the fire Tuesday night, people were everywhere. "It's been a madhouse," he said.
A civic league started the center as a one-story facility. Over the years, additions were made, turning it into a two-story building with a large room for meetings and social activities; a smaller room with a pool table, desk and chairs for the volunteer firefighters; and a kitchen area, where the department held its fund-raising chicken dinners.
The organizers of the the community center deeded the building to the fire department, which was organized in 1973. A year later, according to Glenwood McCarty, a volunteer, the Hardy
First Aid Crew was organized and used the center's lower level, which had three bays.
The first aid crew moved into its own building, about a mile west, two years ago, McCarty said.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Stephanie Klein-Davis. Terry Oakes, the first volunteerby CNBfirefighter to arrive at Tuesday's fire, is back at the scene
Wednesday. The blaza at the Hardy Community Center melted the siding
on the Hardy Volunteer Fire Company station house, about 15 feet
away. The 40-year-old community center, insured at $90,000, was
burned to the ground. color.