Sulphur Springs Board member joined Leona Cox Staff to fight off Buckweed fire

On the second night of the firestorm that ripped through the Santa Clarita Valley, business owner and Sulphur Springs board member Michael Hogan was packing up belongings from his Canyon Country office when he got a call. He was notified that Leona Cox Elementary was in the Buckweed fire’s path. Principal Laura Banda and some of the custodial staff had been on the campus all day fighting spot fires that were just at the edge of the school’s walls.

Michael arrived at the school around 9:30 that night to see if there was anything he could do to help the school faculty.  He started assisting the staff fights small spot fires with two garden hoses and a few five-gallon buckets. Luckily Michael also had a flashlight with him and started searching around the school.

While searching around one of the newer buildings of the school, Michael just happened to look down at one of the power panels that had smoke stains on the concrete around the outside. “It was a total fluke that I found the fire that was remaining in the building,” said Hogan.

After what seemed like forever, the group found one lone fire engine from Montebello Fire Department who just happened to be in the neighborhood filling up the tanks at a fire hydrant. The engine followed the group back up to the school and assisted in putting out the fire that was in the building and saved the structure. But that was not the end of the firefight at Leona Cox Elementary.

“We spent the next two hours putting out all of the trees around the school that were burning,” said Hogan.

The engine then had received a call to assist with some of the surrounding houses that were being threatened. The engine left the staff along with Hogan to fight fires throughout the night.

Whether it was luck, a higher calling, or just being a good citizen, the Leona Cox Elementary School faculty and campus will be forever thankful to the volunteers and staff who took it upon themselves to save the school from excessive damage.

Leona Cox celebrated the work of emergency crews during the SCV wildfires on Thursday, November 15th. To read more on that celebration, click here.