Dear Editor,

Let me be one more of the many in this town thanking the fire departments who put out the fire in Caribou Village on October 9.

I watched it for two hours, getting there a bit after 4 a.m. I saw an almost surreal thing happen to the carousel building’s wooden siding on the three walls facing and closest to the laundromat end of the building, where the fire seemed to be the hottest. The resin within the siding boards melted, liquified, and seeped out the wood’s hundreds of knots.

In several places, the extreme heat of the resin split the wood as it expanded and burst out of the wood. One can see in several places that the highly flammable gases which were produced from the heat caused bubbling.  Looking at the siding now reminds me of fire starter sticks, loaded with resin, which I use to help start fires in my wood stove.

I watched the firefighters training their many hoses on the burning building, including on the closest sides to the building and it seems like we were perhaps only a few minutes away from the resin exploding into fire.

I invite anyone who is interested to come stand in front of this section of the carousel’s siding (you do not need to be inside the fenced perimeter, now off-limits) and view the seeping split knots.

There are two other areas one can see on the wood that indicate how hot this fire was. The intense heat darkened the wood, but the gutter downspout on the southeast corner of the building shielded a small vertical section of the siding, preventing the surface from discoloring. It looks to me like a reverse shadow.

We had recently resealed the building’s exterior wood. The heat caused the clear sealer to crack into indescribable patterns.

I am still in shock at the destruction of the Caribou Village building and its many businesses. But I am filled with gratitude that the quick and coordinated work of our local and area firefighters saved not only our building and the supermarket, but other nearby offices and homes.

Scott Harrison

Nederland