Firefighters’ car wash will help burned residents

Karen Zekan

Friday, Dec. 11, 1998 | 11:41 a.m.

If you've got a dirty car, Clark County firefighters want to wash it Saturday at a special car wash fund-raiser to benefit the many children and adults burned each year in fires.

Firefighters will be sudsing and scrubbing from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Applebee's restaurant parking lot, 3340 S. Maryland Parkway. There's no set price; firefighters are asking donations.

The department will also be selling its first-ever calendar for 1999 -- sans the predictable bare-chested studs, however, says department spokesman Steve La-Sky.

The calender captures images from some of 1998's most dramatic disasters, including the Gold Strike Casino gutted by fire this past summer, the rough-water rescue of a Las Vegas woman stranded overnight in a Boulder Highway flood, and "Snoopy" the cat resuscitated by firefighters who found him unconscious in a burning house.

The $10 calendars are also available at American Shooters Supply and Gun Club, 3440 S. Arville St.

All money goes to the charitable Clark County Fire Fighter Burn Foundation, which assists people injured in fires and helps send local children to special burn camps -- a physically and emotionally important part of their healing. Donations can be made directly by calling 598-3086.

A portion of Saturday's proceeds will be assisting Shelly Blackburn, an Olympic ice-skating hopeful who several years ago suffered horrific third-degree burns over 40 percent of her body.

Blackburn has volunteered numerous hours to help the department with with their public education campaigns, the Juvenile Fire Setters Program and assisting patients at University Medical Center's burn unit.

Blackburn took a turn for the worst last weekend, La-Sky said, requiring yet another operation because of her burn injuries. To date, the woman has endured more than 100 burn-related surgeries.

"She is a single parent and will be out of work for some time," La-Sky said. "We want to do what we can to help her out because she has been such an incredible help to the community."