May 9, 2012
Ken Amorosano and I were in Prescott last night at a dinner with the director of the Sharlot Hall Museum, John Langellier when we smelled smoke. People started running by the front of the restaurant, El Gato Azule, just around the corner from Whiskey Row. Then we heard the sirens.
Running up to the corner we saw this scene:
Went around to the park side and saw into the buildings. Really a devastating fire. Took out three businesses, including the bar-b-q place we ate at last December when The Westerns Channel and I filmed a new batch of Buffalo Soldiers True West Moments and ate there after the shoot.
I was struck by the differences between this fire and the famous 1900 fire when the entire block of Whiskey Row (and part of another one) burned to the ground. Last night the fire department moved in with lightning precision and took over the entire block with a command center, crowd control barriers on all the streets and police crime scene tape securing the perimeter. The equipment looked space age with giant ladders that extended some 200 feet in the air with major water pressure and flood lights to direct the flow. I swear it looked like "War of the Worlds". I have a hunch the fire in 1900 would not have stood a chance against these professionals and their space age equipment.
Here's a short video I shot. I apologize for the crappy narration. I was tired and not up to speed with my usual man-on-the-street patter.
"Your spark can become a flame and change everything."
—E.D. Nixon
