Burning down the house

Fire Chief Gari Gill brought a proposal before the Sundance City Council last week: the new owners of the building that has served in recent memory as a daycare and food pantry would like the fire department to burn it down. Demolishing the building will be expensive, he explained, so the owners have suggested using a controlled burn as a training exercise.

Mayor Paul Brooks initially balked at the idea, recalling an incident back in the days when the fire department regularly undertook such training exercises. Smoke drifted through some open windows during a burn on a spring morning, he sa...