May 30, 2006

At approximately 7:10 p.m., the Prairie du Chien Fire Department responded to a house fire at 131 N. Ohio St. Upon arrival, firefighters found the house fully engulfed.

The house was owned by Evelyn Shulka and rented by Mike Essex, Cindy Stoneking and her family. Stoneking"s father Jerry Bowman, 59, was seriously burned in the fire but the heroic actions of neighbors may have saved his life.

Rick Meyer, who lives directly across the street at 126 N. Ohio, said that he was in his back yard watering plants when he smelled smoke. Meyer said that he then went across the street and told Stoneking, who was on the front porch with her son Dennis, that her house was on fire. Six-year-old Dennis Stoneking had just raced from around the back of the house and had also told his mother that the house was on fire. Meyer asked Stoneking if there was anyone inside and she replied that her father was upstairs.

Meyer said that he tried to enter the house through the front door but the flames stopped him dead in his tracks. He said that he then ran back to his house and got a ladder. By this time, huge flames were coming out of the back of the house due to high wind, Meyer said.

Meyer said that he put the ladder near an upstairs window in order to get Bowman down from the burning house. Meyer said that Bowman crashed through an upstairs window and landed on the roof of the front porch and laid there, passed out.

"We"ve got to go!" Meyer recalled saying to Bowman. Meyer said he then grabbed Bowman by the feet in an effort to drag him off of the porch roof. Stoneking and several other witnesses to the fire, said that Todd Valley was also there helping to get Bowman down from the roof and away from the house.

Bowman had apparently been sleeping upstairs at the time the fire started.

"I just hope he makes it," said Meyer Thursday morning in recounting the incident.

Bowman was put on the ground and sprayed with a garden hose. Meyer and other witnesses said that Bowman was then carried away from the fire and across the street by several people, including a Prairie du Chien police officer. Bowman was then sprayed some more until Prairie du Chien EMS personnel arrived.

Witnesses said that Bowman was burned on the face, arm, chest and back. Stoneking said that her father sustained burns over 45 percent of his body. Meyer recalled that Bowman"s skin was "coming off."

"It"s amazing what you"ll do in a pinch," said Meyer. "You can"t allow that (someone to burn) to happen. You don"t think about it, you just do it. I hope he makes it. That"s all I hope."

Bowman was transported by the Prairie du Chien EMS to Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for burns and smoke inhalation. He was then transported by Med-Flight to UW Hospital in Madison.

Stoneking said that her father is in critical condition but that the prognosis is looking good. "It"s been touch and go but he"s getting stronger and stronger by the minute," she said. Stoneking said that Bowman received his first skin grafts to the back of his hands on Tuesday, May 30.

"I"m so grateful for both of them," said Stoneking in referring to the efforts of Meyer and Valley. "They"re heroes, and so is my son Dennis." Stoneking said that she is also very grateful to all who helped in the emergency, including her fiance" Mike Essex, Prairie du Chien firefighters, police and EMS personnel.

Meyer said that he normally would have been at work at the time of the fire but he was on vacation from his job at the Isle of Capri. As a member of the Marine Department at the casino for the past four years, Meyer participated in fire, man overboard and collision drills twice a week.

Meyer has a large lifesaving plaque commending him for his actions in 1991 when as a 19-year-old he saved the lives of two children who were drowning in the Mississippi River.

The fire had spread very quickly throughout the house due to high wind and building construction. Firefighters were on the scene until 1 a.m. The house is a total loss. One firefighter was treated and released from Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital for a dislocated thumb.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

"This really makes you want to check all of your smoke alarms," said Meyer.

Meyer noted that because the fire was so intense and because the winds were blowing from west to east, he and others across the street watered their houses down. The house next door to the fire, 137 N. Ohio St., sustained heavy damage to its siding, mostly on one side.

In addition to Meyer and Todd Valley, there were others who helped out in the face of danger before police, firefighters and EMS personnel arrived. Witnesses have somewhat varying accounts of the scene. Todd Valley could not be reached for comment.

One man who helped out, and who declined to be identified, said that he left the area when emergency personnel arrived. He noted that while some people helped and some were true heroes, he was also "ashamed" of some fellow citizens who circled the block in their vehicles numerous times to watch the fire as if it were an entertainment event.

Stoneking and her family were staying at the Best Western Quiet House since the fire. The American Red Cross paid for the stay. She said she and her family moved in with a friend on Tuesday, May 30.

Stoneking and her family did not have renters" insurance and lost a lot in the fire but she said that that pales in comparison to her father. "Everything can be replaced, but Dad can"t," she said.

Stoneking also said that she wished to thank all of the people who have given donations to her family. She said that she and her family will be staying at 1316 S. 11th St. temporarily.

"It"s all still very scary," said Stoneking about coping with the whole situation.

In addition to people"s generous monetary donations, Stoneking said that one man who helped out at the scene, John Holley, an employee of Radio Shack in Prairie du Chien, gave her a cell phone. "Everyone"s been calling me," she said.

A Prairie du Chien man has been charged in Crawford County Circuit Court with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated (third offense) and operating after revocation after he was arrested near the scene of a house fire Wednesday night.

Daniel A. Bryson was released on a $500 cash bond last Thursday. According to the criminal complaint, Bryson almost ran over a large yellow fire hose and almost ran into a fire truck at the scene of the house fire Wednesday night at 131 N. Ohio St.

Emergency personnel stated that Bryson apparently followed the bright yellow fire hose with the car he was driving as if the hose were the yellow centerline of a roadway. Bryson missed a vehicle set up to block the street but firefighters had to scream at Bryson in order for him to avoid striking the fire truck, witnesses said.

Bryson was arrested a short time later at about 8:40 p.m. An initial appearance for Bryson has been scheduled for June 9 at 2 p.m. in Crawford County Circuit Court.

Sharon Dearborn"s five-year tenure as executive director of the Prairie du Chien Chamber of Commerce occurred at the same time as a marked growth in community visibility and business activity.

But she does not take credit for many of these accomplishments, although she has had a finger in a number of them.

"I can"t take credit for all of the wonderful things that have happened, but if there was anything I could do, the Chamber could do, to be a part of it, then we were," she explained.

Planning and organizing Chamber events and meetings, and working with a variety of other area organizations have all been part of the job, and Dearborn is an organizational dynamo. She helps to organize such annual events as the Home and Garden Show, the Reality Check for high school students, St. Patrick"s Day parade, and the Fisheree, among others. Dearborn keeps a "tickler" file of events by month „ the month she begins planning them. She has already begun some of the scheduling for the 2007 Home and Garden Show, which will be held next spring.

Dearborn has also worked with area employers, especially retailers, in training employees as ïfrontline" representatives of the community to improve customer service. She also works with a number of local committees and organizations focused on business, including the local Industrial Development Corporation, the Tourism Council, Economic Development and Arts Build. She also helped to start the local Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club. Additionally, she was a part of the planning committee for the city"s comprehensive plan, completed in 2004.

Of course, working with the Chamber of Commerce is all about making connections with people to solve problems. For Dearborn this is perhaps her trademark. "Collaboration and working with people and other organizations is key. You can"t do it alone," Dearborn says. She cites the planning that went into the 2004 Grand Excursion as a key lesson in networking. She explains how city staff and many others really came together to make the event happen. She recalled that sculptor Florence Bird attended one of the Grand Excursion planning meetings in Prairie du Chien, which may have influenced her development of the Sculpture Park idea. "It just goes to show how important those building blocks of relationships are. You never know where a contact, a relationship will lead," she noted.

The New Years Eve Carp Drop, another event that Dearborn helped to plan, is an example of her willingness to ïthink outside the box" and try new things. Dearborn worked with Tom Nelson and many others to make the first Carp Drop a reality. "It"s an example of building on a silly idea," she said, noting that the unusual event brought a lot of national media attention in its first year.

The work at the Chamber that she is most proud of is the creation of Leadership Crawford, an program for youth and adults that helps people develop leadership skills. learn about local government and civic organizations and create volunteer projects. She says she learned of similar initiatives in meeting with other Chamber leaders from across the state. She felt such a program would be of value in Prairie, too. She believes the program will help develop community leaders that will become active in local government, civic and youth organizations and churches.

Dearborn says that the personality, interests and skills of the director help shape the direction of the Chamber, and that will be true for the new director. The hiring process has begun, the deadline for application was May 26. A search committee made up of Chamber board members, Ambassadors and staff will begin reviewing the applications soon. Dearborn will complete her duties on July 31.

Not surprisingly, she has plans for a busy semi-retirement. She is in the process of purchasing the 1887 Dutch Ridge School, which adjoins her property. The school is not just an interesting restoration project „ Dearborn is an alumnus of the country school, as were several generations of her family. She plans to restore the school to represent several periods of its long life. She is also planning a reunion picnic for the school later this summer.

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