‘Better times ahead’: The Richmond fire through Mayor Dave Snow’s eyes

RICHMOND, Ind. — It was a nice day. Clear skies, mid-70s, a light breeze to complement the sunshine. It was the first nice day, the start of a string of nice days, in what seemed like far too long.

The people of Richmond enjoyed it through their lunch break, but that’s about all the time they had to enjoy before those clear skies got a little darker.

“I think the community was ready for not only nice weather, but we’ve just been through some rough times lately,” Richmond Mayor Dave Snow said. “This just adds one more thing to all of our emotional plates that we didn’t need.”

More: Richmond industrial fire forces evacuation/shelter in place order; schools closed Wednesday

‘It was a terrible feeling’

Snow was in a meeting at 2:30 p.m. April 11. That’s when he saw “several” fire trucks racing across town through his office window. It was enough for Snow to stop his meeting and reach out to Richmond Fire Department (RFD) Chief Tim Brown to ask what was happening.

“Based on the number of trucks I saw, I knew we had a serious fire. I said, ‘Wait, that’s a lot of trucks,’” Snow recalled. “Chief Brown informed me what was happening and that it was starting to get out of hand faster than they could stop it.”

Brown told Snow it was the plastics facility on NW F Street, and that’s all the mayor needed to know.

It was a 13.8-acre, six-building complex used by My Way Trading, a business that collected and resold recyclables. Piles of plastics filled the inside and surrounded the outside of each building. The city knew how big of a fire hazard this was and had been taking steps to get the property cleaned up for the past four years.

Shortly after that phone call, Snow took a step outside and looked up. Southeast still looked like the beautiful day that was, but northwest was something out of a disaster film. A large black cloud of smoke rose above the city, and you could see it from neighboring counties and then some.

“It was a terrible feeling to see that amount of smoke coming up,” Snow said.

More: Updates on Richmond fire one day later; ‘probably the largest fire I’ve seen in my career’

Snow’s city team “jumped into action immediately,” and before you knew it, every available fire unit in Wayne County and the surrounding counties was assisting RFD, the Richmond Police Department had set up boundaries around the fire site and the Wayne County Emergency Management Agency had released an evacuation order for anyone within a half mile of the fire.

“The community at large is really fortunate to have the city team we have in place,” Snow said. “That’s not just department heads and chiefs, that’s the people who work in these departments. They all are so passionate about their jobs here, and they’re passionate about the community. Everybody jumped in and played their role, and it’s quite humbling to see.”

‘Nothing short of heroic’

Two days after the fire started, April 13, Snow stood in front of more than a dozen news station cameras and three times as many media members in total for his second press conference in as many days.

More: Richmond fire completely extinguished; residents still need to take precautions

He had bags under his eyes, the kind you’d see in someone twice his age (mid-40s). Snow’s phone never seemed to stop ringing. That’ll happen when you forward your office phone to your cell phone following an area disaster, but he was ready to do whatever it took to help.

“Sleep has not been great or a priority,” Snow said. “I’ve been fielding calls all night. When I’m not in the office, I’m still taking calls that are coming in to make sure, if people have questions or need assistance, I’m on top of that.”

In that same press conference, Brown said he expected the fire to be 98-99 percent extinguished by that night or the next morning at the latest. Later that evening, right around 8, Brown called Snow and let him know RFD was ahead of schedule. There was no visible fire or smoke, and the only thing left to control was flare-ups from under the surface.

“It was just an overwhelming sense of relief for the safety of our first responders,” Snow said. “I’ve been so worried about them. They were very much in harm’s way throughout this fire ordeal.”

More: Focus turns to getting displaced Richmond residents home as firefighters control blaze

All week, Snow gave RFD the highest praise for how it handled the fire. The blaze spread throughout the complex quickly, but RFD contained it to that complex. There was no damage to nearby houses or businesses, and the smoke that once seemingly consumed the city was gone in just 54 hours.

“It’s really hard to put into words what that fire department was able to do,” Snow said. “It was nothing short of heroic.”

‘Why I love calling this place home’

Five days after the fire started, April 16, Snow, still baggy-eyed, stood in front of a single camera after meeting with several federal, state and local officials to announce the end of the evacuation order.

More: Richmond lifts evacuation zone and shelter-in-place order around fire site

It was a big accomplishment for the city to start getting people back to their homes not even a week after a fire like that, but Snow was still focused. He briefly celebrated getting to that point, but he also understood there was still plenty of work to be done.

“The only weight off my shoulders right now is that our first responders are safe and our citizens are safe, but there is still a heavy weight that hangs in getting them home,” Snow said. “We won’t really be able to breathe the full sigh of relief until these people are able to assume their normal lives, which they deserve. We’ll save that sigh of relief a little bit longer until we know everyone is back to their normal lives.”

Snow anticipates there will be “a new set of hurdles and challenges” in getting displaced residents back home, but he’s still been able to appreciate the smaller victories that could have easily been lost in the smoke, if you will.

The word Snow used most throughout the week was “thankful.” It started April 13, when he was thankful there hadn’t been any serious injuries to firefighters or residents. It continued April 14, when he was thankful RFD was able to put the fire out so quickly so the focus could turn to recovery. It remained April 16, when he was thankful to get Richmond citizens back on the road to normalcy.

But when he looked back at the grim week that was, Snow was thankful for the people and the support they showed through one of the tougher times his city has been through.

“We live in a resilient, supportive community of solidarity,” Snow said. “Every time something bad happens in this community, we come together, find a way to support each other and get each other through crisis. It’s why I love calling this place home …

“What I want for us are better times ahead where we don’t have to continue to show people who we are through tragedy. We’ve done that. We need to look ahead to better times and better days for our city and our community.”

Zach Piatt is a reporter for The Palladium-Item. Contact him at zpiatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @zachpiatt13.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: ‘Better times ahead’: The Richmond fire through Mayor Dave Snow’s eyes