01/05/2023
January 5, 1995 Pang Arson Fire Remembrance by David Churchill
Time Passes Eternal
Twenty-eight years ago, on January 5, 1995, we lost four vital, vibrant, dedicated men to an arson fire.
A whole generation of time has passed in the Seattle Fire Department since then. We have some new firefighters among us who weren’t even born when it happened.
Time plays a diverse role in the scope of tragedy.
Everyone has their own relation to time, and their own relation to a particular tragedy. I can be in the beanery on January 5th with another firefighter who just showed up on probation, and the two of us will have a profoundly different relation to the day, yet we are there together, bound by a common mission. For those of us
who experienced the event ‘at ground zero’, to those expanding out from the center of it, all the way to this day, twenty-eight years later, we are all connected by it’s impact. Just as we are connected by all the losses we have experienced over the years, before and since. All the heart attacks, the losses to cancer and other
diseases, the off-duty accidents, and others. We are connected by a collective caring. That’s why we do this job. We care. That is our mission. To care for others.
The suddenness and horror of the Pang Arson added to the acute pain of the loss. The pain cut deeper still because of the senseless crime of greed that caused it. That makes those losses harder to deal with, harder to heal from, because now a vengeful rage is attached to it, a rage that burns across time, burns along with the
emptiness where our brothers used to be.
“Time heals all wounds.” Does it? I don’t feel it does fully. The pain, the rages, the profound feeling of emptiness diminish, but they don’t fully go away. One learns to cope with these feelings, to find some way of turning them into a positive force.
Whether it be creatively, through a memorial, an Honor Guard, artwork, writing, playing music, educating, giving, or just sharing the story, whatever.
The remembrance, however, is vital to the healing.
If this story is not passed on, shared, there is a greater chance the tragedy will be repeated. It must be acknowledged, shared, passed on. Our brothers must be honored. And our sister. Our dear sister, Michelle Williams, just recently lost to disease, survivor of the Pang Arson.
We lost James Scragg, Lieutenant of Ladder Seven at the time, too soon after the fire. Lt. Scragg and Michelle, teamed with Jim Brown and Gary Overall, made up the crew that day. Scragg, Michelle, and Gary were all burned on their way out of the building after the collapse. Scragg, deepest in the building, and burnt the worst,
somehow managed to spray water on his crew as they left, lessening their injuries. God bless James Scragg. Michelle, I recently learned, lived with the memory of Jim Brown’s hand reaching out and grazing her coat as he fell into the basement. Now she is at peace. Bless you, Michelle, Rest In Peace.
For the lives of Walter Kilgore, Gregory Shoemaker, Randall Terlicker, and James Brown, we remember, we honor. Their memories will live in our memories until we ourselves perish. Despite everyone’s differences in age, place, time, and circumstance, it is up to us to unify in this time of remembrance, and tell their story to the next generation, and so on, for all time, so that the loss of their lives will not be in vain.
David Churchill
Director
Seattle's Bravest Charity
