CCD employee puts out fire

Written By: Caitlin Gibbons
(cgibbon4@mscd.edu)
Photo by: Andrew Bissset
(abisset1@mscd.edu)

Ari Rosner-Salazar, director of recruitment and student outreach at the Community College of Denver, is used to putting out fires around his office in the proverbial sense, but Feb. 6, he literally put out a fire outside the South Classroom Building.

A juniper bush burst into flames outside the building after a smoldering cigarette butt in the surrounding mulch rolled into the dry bush at approximately 11 a.m.

Rosner-Salazar was exiting the restroom near his office when Derick Gavidia, an accounting major at UCD and an hourly worker in the CCD cashiering office, came rushing down the hall yelling, “Fire!”

“I was a little confused at first. A lady told my supervisor to call the fire department, but there was no visible smoke in the building. I walked outside to see what was happening and saw the smoke and a few low flames,” Gavidia said. “I ran into Ari as I came back into the building. His eyes widened when I told him there was a brush fire and he grabbed the fire extinguisher.”

The fire engulfed the juniper bush located directly in front of a diesel-powered generator on the south side of the building.

“My first impression was that the fire was too big to handle with an extinguisher. The winds were blowing the smoke almost horizontally,” Rosner-Salazar said. “One thing that I learned in my training is that if a fire is too big, don’t try to fight.”
Rosner-Salazar received fire and earthquake training when he was employed at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Bill Hudak, an accountant for CCD, was with Gavidia and Rosner-Salazar.

“The flames spread fast, and the bush was dangerously close to the generator,” Hudak said.

Both Hudak and Rosner-Salazar were worried that the fire would damage the generator and endanger the building.

“I was confident with my training in operating a fire extinguisher that I could slow down the fire until the fire department could get here,” Rosner-Salazar said.

Rosner-Salazar stayed on the sidewalk and used a slow sweeping motion to douse the flames. He instructed Hudak and Gavidia to find another fire extinguisher.

“It was very windy. Fortunately the wind was blowing towards the building and actually helped spread the agent [from the extinguisher],” said Rosner-Salazar.
Rosner-Salazer had used the entire contents of the first extinguisher and had the fire almost out when Hudak and Gavidia returned with the second canister.

The Denver Fire Department as well as Auraria Police responded. The fire department commended Rosner-Salazar’s efforts, and doused the area with water to prevent any flare-ups.

“The training came in handy. It was almost 10 years ago. If I hadn’t had this training I would not have been confident enough to operate the extinguisher,” Rosner-Salazar said. “You can’t always sit back in disaster and wait for help. A little training can help.”