Bill Burgess, Eric Morgan, Nick Hunter put out fire for customer
Affectionately dubbed “Bartlesville’s favorite City workers,” a City of Bartlesville sanitation crew went above and beyond earlier today when they alerted a local woman to a fire in her back yard — and then spent the better part of an hour putting it out for her.
Sanitation Driver Bill Burgess, Collector II Nick Hunter, and Collector I Eric Morgan were running their regular route on Tuesday when they noticed smoke coming from a back yard two blocks away, on Crown Drive.
“We thought it was too much smoke to be someone cooking or something like that, so we stopped and knocked on the door,” said Burgess. “A woman answered and I asked if she was cooking something in the back yard. She said she wasn’t, so I said, I think your yard is on fire.”
Local resident Janice Thompson says she wasn’t convinced at first, but the men were adamant that the yard was on fire. It turned out some of the mulch in her flower beds had caught fire and was smoldering.
“It had burned up some of her shrubs and was smoldering, creating a lot of heavy smoke,” Burgess said. “We doused it down with the garden hose and then used a rake to turn over the hot spots, soaking all of it down really well.”
Thompson said she had used a mole deterrent — the kind you put in the ground and light — earlier this morning, which apparently started the fire. She said she was completely unaware of it because the area isn’t visible from the main part of the house.
“What happened is that the mulch around it was so dry it caught fire, or smoldered,” Thompson said. “And I would have never known, if these gentlemen hadn’t stopped and knocked on my door. They were so kind, and I so appreciate everything they did.”
Sanitation Supervisor Craig Gordineer says the heroic actions of the crew are to be commended — but they aren’t surprising.
“I am always very proud of our team for the job they do for the city,” said Gordineer. “It is a blessing to know that we employ people with the character and desire to act when they observe something like this. The actions of Bill and Nick and Eric are truly above the call of duty but also exemplify the type of character they have. I couldn’t be more proud of them for dropping everything to help someone in need.”
Burgess, Hunger and Morgan will be nominated for the City’s Employee Advisory Committee’s Employee of the Month award.