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Show Old Courthouse Ravaged Deputy Credited With Saving Life was shining my flashlight," Officer Bircumshaw called out again, "Can you see my light," a few moments later the response came back, "Yes I can see it now". "Crawl towards it," cried the Deputy. "Erickson began crawling toward the light. He finally reached me," states Bircumshaw, I could not see him but 1 felt him. He had a small suitcase with him," he continued, "we turned around and crawled down the stairs and out the front door to safety." Moments Mom-ents later the fire engine from Henefer pulled up. As the building burned out of control, hundreds of rounds of ammunition began exploding, shattering the then not so still early morning morn-ing air. One spectator commented, com-mented, "Boy, it was kinda-spooky kinda-spooky watching her burn with all those shells going off." The Pinters, who fortunately fortun-ately did have some insujv (Continued on Page Four) f i I - - I ....... . - I X'- L , ' -'''' ' . I f .. . . . .. , i L.w . c , I by Max C. Jarman A devastating early morning morn-ing fire completely destroyed destroy-ed Summit County's second oldest courthouse in Wanship Friday. The historic two-story frame building was serving as a small hotel, service station and residence for the building's owners, Mr. and Mrs. John Pinter. The blaze, whose cause is pending an investigation by the State Fire Marshal's office, apparently started in the rear of the building around 3 a.m. Friday morning. morn-ing. Mr. and Mrs. Pinter and a house guest, Lee Erickson, Erick-son, were asleep in the building build-ing when the fire broke out. The alarm went out to Henefer, Hen-efer, Kamas, Coalville and Park City volunteer fire departments. de-partments. Henefer was the first to arrive to find the building burning furiously, then Coalville, Kamas and Park City. They battled the blaze for over four hours and successfully prevented it from spreading to several nearby buildings. One hose was constantly spraying water on a house next door to keep it from bursting into flames. A man at the scene the next day commented, "if the wind had been blowing just a little bit harder the house would have gone for sure and probably half the buildings on the street." Mr. and Mrs. Smith, owners of the Wanship Cash Store, less than a hundred yards from the fire had this to say, "All we saw was a blaze, we were busy watching watch-ing our own place the way sparks were flying." The real hero Friday morning was Deputy Sheriff John Bircumshaw. Deputy Bircumshaw can be credited with, saving the life of Lee Erickson who was trapped in the hnrn in cr hnil Hin rr r The remains of the building after the fire whose cause is highly suspected as arson. Bircumshaw, one of the first to arrive found Mrs. i Pinter scantly clothed in ' front of the hotel. "Mrs. Pinter was screaming about someone still inside," stated stat-ed Bircumshaw. The deputy entered the building to find it heavily filled with smoke. "I had to crawl on my hands and knees because the smoke was so thick," he continued. "I finally located the stair well and began to crawl up. I was calling Mr. Erickson's name the whole time." He goes on, "Finally I got an answer. I yelled 'can you see me', Erickson replied 'no'. It was extremely dark and I ... Fire (Continued from Page One) ance managed to escape only with what they could hurridly put on their backs. In Mrs. Pinter's case only a night gown and a robe. "The Wanship residents were quick to help with clothing cloth-ing and other necessitites," interjected a man on the scene, "My wife who is about the same size as Mrs. Pinter Pint-er gave her what clothing she could spare." The Pinters are currently residing in Coalville while they assess the damages. Deputy Sheriff John Bircumshaw |