Besides the heroics of the Hoodland Fire District firefighters – and those of nine other area districts – there was a handful of local citizens who rose to the occasion April 20 when the Golden Poles condominium exploded in flames in Government Camp.

Chris Scott, 49, a plumber from Welches, was having lunch at Charlie’s in Government Camp when a phone call came in from a local housekeeper that the condominium was on fire. Scott,
along with bartender Aaron Sgrignuoli, Skibowl mechanic Scott Anderson, and
Govy gas station attendant Pete Peterson, headed immediately in the
direction of the blaze, stopping only long enough to call Hoodland Fire.

What Scott saw was three apartments engulfed in flames.

“This is serious,” Scott said, remembering back at the moment. “It was
shocking. The heat was tremendous. It was crazy. No one’s here.”

Anderson got a phone call from a condo at the rear of the building. A woman
was in trouble. Anderson took off running.

“I didn’t think,” Scott said. “I just raced after him.”

There was a woman two floors up, trying to clamber over the railing of a
patio, her leg in a heavy cast. They later found out it was a broken femur
from a snowboarding accident.

“Scott (Anderson) started climbing,” Scott said. “I grabbed a railing, headed
up, and grabbed a patio bar stool to stand on.”

Anderson reached the woman in distress, and managed to hand her over the
edge into Scott’s arms.

“I saw her coming, took her feet, and hugged her as she slid down,” Scott
said. “I’m surprised I could hold her. We got down from the stool, and she
grabbed onto my back, piggy back, and I carried her away from the building.”

Anderson had grabbed the woman’s wheelchair from the condo apartment and
Scott put her into it. Anderson, Sgrignuoli and Peterson got the woman to her
van and Anderson and Sgrignuoli drove her away.

“I’m just standing there,” Scott said, then remembered thinking “What if there
are more people?”

He ran back to the rear – the only part of the condo that was accessible due
to the inferno that was blazing in the front – and started yelling for people. He
noticed a light on and a patio slider open one floor up. It was time to climb,
again. Scott reached the apartment but the inhabitants had already cleared
out. As quickly as he could, he grabbed up some belongings – purse, keys,
laptop, wallet, photos – crammed them into a tote bag and headed out to the
railing.

“The owner is looking up at me, carrying stuff out of his condo,” Scott said.
“I’m going, ‘am I going to have to explain myself?’”

The crisis was avoided. The owner took the tote bag.

“That’s when Pete (Peterson) told me that Hoodland Fire had arrived, and
we’d better get out,” Scott said.

They walked around to the front as fire engines were arriving on the scene
and firefighters were attacking the flames.

The Hoodland Fire Department presented awards to the stalwart individuals at
a May 9 Government Camp CPO meeting.

Looking back, Scott wondered when some people told him after hearing what
they had done that they wouldn’t have done what he did.

“We didn’t hesitate,” he shrugged. “No one else was there.”