January Column Winner

Voters to the rescue

By Barb Walter, The Kingfisher Times & Free Press

Some of you remember the 1977 Farmer’s Oil Supply fire in Hennessey and many of us remember the tragic Big Red Fire in April 1971.

But this afternoon I’m remembering the Sunday evening fire in 2007 on the west side of the 100 block of South Main Street. 

It got my attention because it was across the street from our then-newspaper office in Hennessey. 

I was in bookkeeper mode working on state and federal reports at The Clipper office when I heard the fire call on our police scanner. 

I went into reporter mode, grabbed a camera and ran out the front door.

Before the first fire truck got there I saw only a little smoke coming out of the buildings across the street from the newspaper office. 

When the first truck arrived there, I remember throwing the camera over my shoulder, and standing by LaPorte’s Pharmacy and yelling at passersby not to run over the fire hose. 

I didn’t think the fire would be much, but took photos of firefighters breaking glass to get into one of the buildings. 

Before long it seemed as if all of Main Street was on fire and I don’t know if my husband, Bill, was in the darkroom souping film, or at home, but all the sirens got him outside with his camera, too. 

The east side of the street was filled with people taking pictures with their cell phones of the two brick buildings, the one-story American Legion and the two-story IOOF, that ended up totally engulfed in flames. 

It was surreal that people just stood there taking pictures while I worried our town would burn down. 

The vacant Dinkler Drug building was heavily damaged because it shared interior walls with the IOOF building and drugstore building was demolished later which also caused many phone photos. 

I believe we went home sometime after midnight, but our local firefighters were there until daybreak when they had to go to their paying jobs. 

The loss of those three buildings looked as if Main Street was missing three front teeth from 2007-2011. 

That’s when they were replaced by a grand 9,400 square foot structure. 

The construction cost of the Kirkpatrick Oil Co. Office was $2.1 million. 

Over the years it has also been the site for several HHS proms and visits from Santa during the Lions Club’s Mistletoe Magic events. 

Kingfisher lost it’s Main Street 89er Theater the year before the Hennessey fire.

It wasn’t lost on me that county voters turned out in big numbers in the spring of 2008 in support of taxes that continue to support the local fire departments in Kingfisher County.