July 16, 2008
CDOT Trinidad Employees
Honored for Fire Response
DENVER, COLORADO – Four Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) employees from the Trinidad area received CDOT Achievement Awards in the category of service for their response during and after a major fire at the CDOT Trinidad maintenance facility on March 9, 2008. Honored were:
Vernon Chavez of Trinidad, Lead Maintenance Worker for Patrol 1 at Trinidad
Jeff VanMatre of El Moro, Maintenance Foreman at Trinidad
Keith Hammel of Trinidad, Heavy Equipment Mechanic at Trinidad
Mark Stacy of Hoehne, CDOT Trinidad-Area Maintenance Supervisor
The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon, March 9, at about 4 p.m. Chavez was first on scene; VanMatre arrived about five minutes later. Their work to open the yard in advance of fire response, and to pull down huge bay doors in the building to give fire responders access, was credited with helping limit damage. They also moved equipment valued at nearly $1 million from the facility.
Hammel and Stacy were honored for their extensive work following the fire. Hammel handled the situation of rehabilitating smoke and fire-damaged equipment to make it roadworthy for critical highway maintenance operations in the face of an approaching winter storm. Stacy coordinated numerous processes after the fire with media, utility companies, and insurance carriers, to name just a few.
Keith Flowerdew of Pueblo, CDOT Maintenance Superintendent for Southeastern Colorado, nominated the four for the award and participated in the presentation before the Colorado Transportation Commission with CDOT Executive Director Russell George. Flowerdew told the Commissioners that although the four employees had different roles in addressing the emergency, “their actions kept the fire from getting much worse, kept us from losing our critical equipment for highway maintenance, and allowed us to keep the highways safe just a few days afterward when a predicated winter storm hit the area.”
Russell George said the actions of the four award-winners typified CDOT’s “history and heritage of service to Colorado, on the highways and off. One of our great strengths is our response to emergency situations. The response of these employees to a very serious emergency certainly exemplified that.”
###