My dad, Tom Sauter, helped fight the big fire in Carthage on March 2, 2002. When he got to the fire he was feeling scared and excited because it was a very big fire in an old building. Fires in old buildings can be dangerous. He was also concerned about the people who lived in the apartments and was hoping everyone got out safely. He thought the firemen weren't being aggressive enough in the beginning, and that the fire would spread to other buildings, which it did.
	My dad was fighting the fire at the back of the buildings on Spring Street and the wind made it very smoky. When the back of the building collapsed, he and the the other firemen couldn't see it. Then could only hear it fall in front of them. It was a very long and tiring day, from six o'clock in the morning when the alarm rang until eleven o'clock that night when my dad finally came home. A few firefighters stayed all night, afraid that it might start up again.
On Sunday, he got up again at six o'clock in the morning and went back to the fire scene. He watched as they tore down the remaining fire walls and burned-out buildings. Then he helped pick up hoses and clean the trucks. All the rubble on the ground was still smoking, but when it rained that day it helped. This fire was very devastating to the people of Carthage when they saw the buildings of downtown on fire and the sky full of smoke. Many are comparing it to the great fire of Carthage in 1884. Emily