Honoree credited by OSU

BY SUSAN SIMPSON

Published: October 5, 2008

Oklahoma State University graduates are honoring a man they call a fire safety hero with a scholarship named in his honor.

Archie Moore never attended OSU, but his lifelong passion to save lives impacted students there and across the nation, said alumnus Michael Messner. In the mid-’80s, Messner spent summers with Moore as he trained firefighters to respond to propane fires.

Moore, a Perry native, was motivated in his work by a personal story of a fiery tragedy. He was 22 when he watched the horrible deaths of his father and stepmother as the propane truck they were in was hit by a big rig. Driving a truck behind them, he witnessed the explosion and fireball that spewed half a mile into the sky.

"Many times things happen to us and we really don’t realize why,” said Moore, now 84. "That was my worst day, but I turned out to train firefighters across the country.”

Moore worked for the state’s liquefied petroleum board in the 1960s, then took a job as a safety engineer with Ranger Insurance Co., spending more than two decades showing firefighters how to put out propane blazes.

His training was unique because students ignited live propane.

"The flame would go 60 feet in the air and roar like a freight train,” Messner said.

Moore’s basic rule: If you can’t quickly take command and turn off or redirect the fuel source, get away. Over the years, firefighters told him the training saved their lives.

For Messner, it laid the foundation for his job as a loss control consultant for an insurance company. He and 11 other alumni have pitched in several thousand dollars and are working to raise $23,000 to fully endow a fire protection and safety scholarship so that one $1,000 award can be given every year.

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