Colorado State University loses "irreplaceable" equipment in logging fire

CBS News

3 days ago

The CSU Logging Team is recovering from a fire that destroyed nearly all of their equipment, including some crosscut saws that date back almost 100 years.
While the loss threatened to cancel their season, team members say the logging community is rallying around them. Teams from across the country are donating money and equipment.
"This sport is something so rare, and it's so special to me because it gave me such an awesome part of my life," said recent CSU grad Chris Graham.
Graham spent five years competing as part of CSU's Logging Team.
"I loved chopping," Graham said. "I really enjoyed- we call it 'barreling,' which is a log rolling in the water."
At CSU, the sport dates back to 1939.
"Pretty much all disciplines of- lumberjack activities are what they compete in," Graham said. "It's almost like a track meet where you have a large group of competitors that are competing in multiple events throughout the day, that are happening- often simultaneously."
As captain and president, Graham worked to grow the co-ed group from five members to 40.
He says the club team is student-run and self-funded.
"Every year," Graham said, "we probably split and sold 30 cords of firewood, just a really large amount to move for just kids doing it after school."
But on July 6, Graham got a call that a fire had devastated the team's logging complex.
"I just started brainstorming immediately all this past week, just been on the phone with people and trying to figure out, where do we go from here, to try to help them out," Graham said.
When Graham went to see the damage himself, he found two of the team's four equipment sheds were completely destroyed, and another one was damaged.
Antique saws, equipment, and safety gear were lost.
"A lot of the stuff is what we call pretty much irreplaceable," Graham said.
Poudre Fire Authority says it completed an investigation but could not determine the cause of the fire. Investigators said the fire was not suspicious.
In December, the Poudre Fire Authority put out a fire in the same area caused by embers from a campfire that was improperly extinguished.
And just last week, the agency put out another fire elsewhere on CSU property. That fire burned one structure, and its cause was also undetermined.
"I think a lot of people are still in shock about it. It's- there's a lot of questions in the air of; where do we go from here?" Graham said. "If I had to place a guess purely on just equipment costs, I'd bet anywhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 to $60,000 easily. Of course, for an organization that's completely student-funded, that's really hard money to build back."
In an effort to save the team he loves, Graham started raising money online. He says teams from across the country have offered to donate money and equipment.
Just last week, Northern Arizona University loaned CSU their equipment so the team could compete in a college and rookie show. The team's next competition will be "Choptoberfest," an event they host in October.
"The community is unlike any other sport that I've been a part of; it's so supportive," Graham said.
The team's current president says he's confident the team will recover and come back stronger than ever.