Don Gagnon, left, a UPS driver, is being hailed as a hero after reportedly helping save houses during the recent Bordeux Fire in South Thurston County.
As a deluge of rain and strong winds blow us into fall, can we still remember two weeks ago, when we were choking on smoke and wildfires even on the “wet” side of the mountains?
There’s a moment worth committing to memory. It’s when a local UPS delivery driver took a turn into heroism as he made deliveries in the Littlerock area.
Don Gagnon was already a popular figure on his delivery route — quick with a smile and a buoyant personality.
He was dropping off packages in a Bordeaux-area housing development when he noticed a fast-growing wildfire.
He followed the fire from the house where he was making deliveries, looking for a water sprinkler he could turn on. That’s when he noticed flames at a 500-gallon propane tank. He grabbed a hose and started spraying around the tank and the lawn — but first he turned off the propane tank. He went from house to house doing the same thing.
He worked for an hour fighting the fire before it grew even more dangerous and he had to leave.
The smoke was so thick that he had to tie a towel around his head and douse himself with water for protection.
“When it was time to get out, you couldn’t see,” Gagnon told The Chronicle’s Jackson Gardner. He was driving blind, edging his way out of the smoke and wildfire.
What makes the story more poignant is that Gagnon himself lost his home to fire in 2000.
In this time of division, when so many of us are tempted to see those with different political or social views as enemies, it’s wonderful to celebrate the selflessness of a regular guy who sees danger and runs toward it to help people he doesn’t know.
Thank you, Mr. Gagnon, for being the kind of hero that we might not deserve, but that we definitely need right now.
And let’s all remember that there are a lot of societal flames dancing around 500-gallon propane tanks right now. Are you going to turn off the gas and turn on the hose, or are you going to light a match?
Coming in Fourth, and First
Let’s take a moment to salute another champion, but one who didn’t even earn a bronze for his golden heart.
Diego Méntriga was a few dozen yards from the finish line of the Santander Triathlon in Spain last week when the runner ahead of him, Britain’s James Teagle, took a wrong turn among confusing partitions in the final winding stretch of the race and lost valuable seconds of running time.
Méntriga, who had been just behind him, was suddenly in third place. As he realized what had happened, he slowed down. He stopped a foot from the finish line to let Teagle — who had been in the lead — catch up and take his rightful position ahead of him.
“He was in front of me the whole time,” Méntriga said. “He deserved it.”
His sportsmanship cost him a bronze medal, but the class it demonstrated was worth far more.
May we all be as victorious as fourth-place finisher Diego Méntriga in our life’s races.
N95s and Back-to-School
KOMO News reports that the Tacoma School District is pausing a physical return-to-school until it can provide virus-blocking N95 masks for all its employees.
The school district cites guidance from the Department of Labor & Industries, saying that the school district must provide N95 masks to all personnel, not just nurses, before instruction can resume.
Local school districts should look into this issue to ensure they are following proper safety protocols to protect teachers and other school district personnel before they reopen classrooms to students.
They Say It’s Your Birthday
Well, it’s my birthday this week. I won’t say quite how old I am, except I’m old enough that I have to do the math and think a little to remind myself of my age.
In lieu of gifts, I’ll just ask y’all to fact-check anything before you share it to Facebook. Refusing to share misleading and partisan rage-bait is the gift to all of us that keeps on giving.
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Brian Mittge is “this side of 40” in south Chehalis. Drop him a line at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
