Concerned community members flocked to the Templeton Community Center looking for answers to questions about the Templeton Feed & Grain fire on July 4.
Templeton CSD general manager, Jeff Britlz, says the purpose of the meeting was to address the many rumors circulating around the community.
Presenters who confronted the rumors explained that water rations were done out of an abundance of caution, and lack of water was never an issue.
Templeton Fire Chief Tom Peterson told the crowd that because of a quick response time and extra firefighter staffing for the Fourth of July holiday, the fire was prevented from being even worse than it was.
"In my 35 years of experience," says Peterson. "It would be my opinion that we would have probably lost more structures had we not aggressively hit it right off the bat."
The Jermin family, owners of Templeton Feed & Grain, were at the meeting to share the future of the business.
“We are intending to completely rebuild the white cement building," says Rick Jermin. "The bins, we're not going to be able. There's no need for it at this point."
In terms of who’s responsible for the fire, Briltz says that not much information can be released because
"There are juveniles involved," he says. "And that means we probably aren't going to know as much about this investigation or what happened."
Tonight’s meeting didn’t address any firework regulations, but there will be a board meeting about that on Sept. 2 that is open to the public.
Briltz said that he hopes that the meeting clears up many concerns that he’s been hearing from the community.
“We really want to give the community the opportunity to ask questions," Briltz said. "Get their questions answered, participate, and don't feel like they didn't have an opportunity to get the information straight from the source.”
