10 Years Ago 1997

A fireman proposes building a house to teach fire escape drills. The shrill cry of the smoke detector pulls you out of a deep sleep. Its pitch black, You smell smoke. You drop to your knees and crawl toward the door still not quite awake. It doesnt take long to become disoriented as your path is blocked with unexpected obstacles a chair out of place, a wall that shouldnt be there. You cant seem to find the door. Then you panic and stand up. Its a move that will kill you in a house fire. One gulp of the toxic smoke and you drop unconscious to the floor. Gail Moffett doesnt want that to happen to anyway. An eight-year veteran of the Oso Fire Department, Moffett has been working for the last three years to build an interactive tool giving children and adults the chance to learn how not to panic how not to die. That tool is a fire safety trailer a self-contained model re-creating conditions of a smoke-filled home in the disorienting darkness of night, including the wail of a smoke detector, smoke, darkness, stairs, walls and furniture to maneuver around before escaping to safely. At least thats what the trailer will be by October, if Moffett has her way. Currently, the trailer is a steel frame on wheels, put together by Steve Van Valkenbergs Arlington High School Agriculture shop class over the last two months. The steel for the frame was purchased, in part, by money raised three years ago by Willy Harper, then an AHS senior and friend of Moffetts who was facing his DECA class project. Based on Moffetts wish for a fire safety trailer, Harper and three other students sponsored a fundraising golf tournament at Cloverdale Golf Club to ignite the project. When the boys graduated, however, the project stalled. A year later, Moffett put together an open house at the Oso Fire Station commemorating Fire Preparation Week and borrowed Lake Stevens fire safety house. Everyone was so impressed with it I thought we ought to get going with the plan to build one of our own again, she said. She connected with Robert Marshall, the Fire Prevention Specialist at Lake Stevens Fire Department, who had helped put together the plans and fundraising campaign for their safety house. He provided Moffett with a floor plan and list of supplies. She then contacted local fire departments to gain their support for the idea and proposed putting a project committee together. Although the idea was well received, she didnt get much response and the committee was never formed. Memorial donations following a death in her family last winter added fuel to the project, which helped pay for the framework materials. The Darrington Fire Department donated axels, brakes and a lighting system for the trailer. They also offered use of their smoke machine. Then Moffett approached Van Valkenberg to see if his class would be interested in the project. They were. Now the trailer is ready for the next phase of construction. When the trailer is done, the plan is to have it used by any the fire department or private organization that works with kids and is willing to take the time to teach home fire safety, she said. The trailer will be handicapped accessible and walk-throughs with pre-schoolers without the smoke also will be available. One of the lessons that can be taught, in addition to learning to stay close to the floor and feel doors for heat before opening them, is to have a firefighter in full bunker gear and face mask inside the smoke-filled trailer. Children will be able to hear breathing apparatus, see the mask and reflective tape of the bunker gear and recognize it as a firefighter rather than some giant monster coming after them. Theyll know not to hide from a firefighter in a smoke-filled room, she said. Thats something that kids really need to know. You can stand a firefighter in full gear in front of them in daylight, but its not the same as seeing them in a smoke filled room, she said. Its just one of the many things kids can learn from the trailer. In addition to experiencing what its like to be in a smoke-filled room, the fire safety house also offers an opportunity to stress the importance of having a home evacuation plan. Its an opportunity to find something that sparks thats probably a bad word to use that makes them see the importance of it so they will remember and nag their parents to make sure they have a home fire drill.

25 Years Ago 1982

This years [1982] Frontier Days Auto Show marks the tenth anniversary of the event and Carol Olson, program manager, has dedicated the event to Bob Williams and his late wife, Ann. Both Bob and Ann enjoyed and contributed so much to promoting the auto show, said Olson, helping drive his personal antique cars back and forth to parades and promotional events. Olson started the car show on the first anniversary of his Island Crossing service station in 1967 as a way to express his appreciation to his customers. The first year drew only five cars, the second 15 cars and it continued to grow from there. In 1973, Oslo was asked to join the Frontier Days festivities and he moved his auto show into Arlington with assistance from Gil and Bev Wold and Ginny Hibbard. The combined efforts of these people have made the Arlington Frontier Days Auto Show an outstanding annual event, he said.

50 Years Ago 1957

Mrs. LaVonne Quake of Arlington was the winner of a prize from Larrys Shell Service when her name was draw from 36 correct entries identifying the Mystery Farm, the home of Hans Tillesons of R. 1, Arlington. The mining of gold in Alaska is a lure that has attracted many an adventurous man to that American frontier, among them Hans Tilleson, who is now in semi-retirement on his 65-acre farm southeast of Arlington. With him are his wife and son, who, with one extra hand, battled the frozen muck and gravel with muscle and, in recent years, machinery, sometimes barring the earth to a depth of 60 feet in a gamble for gold. It has been four years since the Tillesons have made the trip north, as they used to do each year, working all summer and waiting out the winters on the outside. When Mr. Tilleson first reached Alaska in 1908, the Yukon Rush of 1898 was over, but the fever was still strong in other sectors. It was there he met and married Mrs. Tilleson. For him, there was never the thrill of the big strike, but the coming of big equipment and placer methods made the business profitable until the prices of wages and supplies went out of sight following the second world war. At one time, his operation employed 18 to 20 men, then down to one or two. Tilleson is now engaged in trout farming as a hobby, with three large ponds on his place, which, along with a round-style barn, gives the farm a graceful, continental appearance.