Pickwick Landing State Park maintenance building destroyed by fire

As some 200 firefighters and other first responders attended an educational conference at Pickwick Landing State Park on Wednesday, a fire broke out which destroyed a sizable maintenance building near the park’s marina.
According to a Hardin County Fire Department statement, local firefighters were at the conference and arrived at the scene within a minute. However, the fire at 180 Marina Road, which is suspected to have been caused by sparks from a bench grinder, “went unnoticed for several minutes and the shop was fully involved when firefighters arrived.”
The department said firefighters were dispatched at 2:48 p.m., and a log sheet shows the blaze was reported under control at 4:15 p.m. The log sheet says several firefighters were “extremely hot and some are getting sick.”
Under a sunny sky, the temperature was near 100 degrees at the time.
No one was reported injured, the department said, and firefighters took frequent breaks.
The two-day conference was hosted by Hardin County Fire and Emergency Management and presented by West Tennessee Emergency Management Association.
Hardin County has helped host the event for more than two decades, and it was attended this year by firefighters, emergency medical personnel and other first responders from all 21 west Tennessee counties, said LaRae Sliger, director of the Hardin County Emergency Management Agency.
“We take up most of the hotel” at the park, she noted.
Sliger said the event gives first responders the chance to get together and “learn about all of our different resources in west Tennessee.”
It’s also an opportunity to attend informative seminars and earn continuing education credits required to maintain various certifications, she noted.
A sampling of the topics presented during the Aug. 27-28 event include “Electric Vehicles, Hazards and the Grid,” “Flood Inundation Mapping: Coming to a River Near You This Fall,” “Pediatric Trauma in HazMat Situations” and “Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Radiological Defense for Tennessee.”
Hardin County Fire Chief Melvin Martin said that perhaps the biggest benefit for those at the event is networking, sharing experiences about “what happened and how they dealt with it.”