03/13/12 Plymouth’s historic fire at the Liberty Street Depot Saturday was the topic of conversation during the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting Monday evening.

Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson said 1 million gallons of water were used by the firefighters working the blaze during the 24 hour period.  Both water treatment plants were working at full capacity supplying 3,000 gallons of water a minute.  Davidson said, “I was extremely impressed on the performance of the fire department.”

   Newly appointed Fire Chief, Rod Miller took time to say thank-you to the city department heads for their assistance during the fire.  He also noted that even though the Mayor was out of town, he was in contact with him through his secretary, Laura Mann and later in the evening personally on the phone.  Miller said, “At this point we are starting to dig out.  The State Fire Marshall was in today working with Senior Investigator John Pasley.”  He continued, “We are at a standstill.  We know the fire began on the west end of the building in the electrical room but utilities have been off in the building for about a year.”  The Fire Chief closed by saying, “I don’t know if we will be able to prove what started it.”

Mayor Mark Senter was on his way to Illinois for a funeral when he got the call.  Monday night he said, “If it had been a tragedy I would have turned about but I knew it was in the right hands.”

  Former Plymouth Fire Chief and current City Councilman Wayne Smith had nothing but praise for the new chief.  He said, “I’m extremely proud of you Rod.”  He said that Miller was on the scene almost immediately and took control of the situation. Smith explained the Miller was the training officer for the department the last couple of years.  He said his experience showed through as he communicated with the various departments.

Councilman Duane Culp was working a case but heard the communications between the fire department and police department.  Culp said, “Police and Fire seemed to worked well together.  I think you did a great job.”

    Mike Delp, Councilman-at-Large lives on the south end of town and saw the smoke Saturday afternoon.  He parked his vehicle at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue and walked up to the scene.  He said, “You seemed calm, cool and collected, although I know you probably weren’t.”

Councilman Don Ecker said, “You guys have said it all but I do want to thank our volunteer firefighters too.”