July 21, 2017 is a day that will forever be remembered in the history of FCW.\u00a0 It was a hot, humid Friday typical of July in western NC.\u00a0 A Ham Radio class was scheduled for the next morning and Michelle was a FCW setting up for it.\u00a0 Mitch and Lisa dropped by to pick up a few things for a vacation to California.\u00a0 Crystal brought a few things by, then gave Mitch and Lisa a ride to the airport.\u00a0 Michelle stayed until 6:30PM, unaware that elsewhere in the building,\u00a0 a fire had started.<\/p>\n
Michelle arrived home around 7PM and the phone rang a few minutes later.\u00a0 It was Brandon asking “Is that our space on fire?!”\u00a0\u00a0 Michelle contacted Gene, who lived much closer to FCW and anxiously awaited the reply.\u00a0 Around 15 minutes later Gene called back, in tears and confirmed that the building was on fire.\u00a0 Michelle\u00a0 picked up Kay and rushed back to FCW.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\u00a0 black smoke could be seen 15 miles away. Gene, Mitch K.,\u00a0 James S., and Ron were already there.<\/p>\n
At that time,\u00a0 the fire was already through the roof but was at the rear of the building running along a cupola down the center.\u00a0 None of FCW was involved and we had some hope that the fire would be extinguished before reaching FCW.\u00a0 What we did not know at the time is that the sprinklers were faulty and were not working.<\/p>\n
17 area fire departments were fighting the fire and many of the area buildings were evacuated.\u00a0 A local drone pilot who does flyovers for area TV stations recorded much of the fire.<\/p>\n