Today’s column focuses on members of our wonderful Bangor Fire Department who have been receiving not only local, state and national attention lately, but international attention as well for their valiant effort to save the historic Masonic Building on Main Street in downtown Bangor.

The 135-year-old building that housed several Masonic organizations, the Masonic Learning Center, River City Gallery and Yankee Shoe Repair, caught fire on Thursday, Jan. 15, and was finally extinguished on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

You read Thursday of the fire department members’ gratitude for the assistance they received from local relief agencies and fellow firefighters in surrounding communities, and for the outpouring of concern demonstrated by members of the public – even those most closely affected by the fire – who helped support the firefighters throughout that frigid and frightful ordeal.

The Masonic Building fire is one for the record books for sure, considering all the elements involved, ranging from the subzero temperatures and the intensity of the fire to the historic aspects of the building and its contents.

Readers may not be aware that the Bangor Fire Department keeps an official scrapbook of such events, and even has large framed photos of other historic fires, such as the Opera House fire, which was exactly 90 years before the Masonic Building fire.

To maintain an accurate and complete record of the activities of the fire department, which now, sadly, includes the Masonic Building fire, Bangor Fire Department Public Education Officer Jason Johnson is seeking your help.

He hopes you will want to assist members of the department in preserving what has become a very important piece of its history.

Johnson wrote the department is looking for copies of photos that area residents may have taken of the Masonic Building fire for inclusion in its scrapbook.

“In addition to using the photos,” he added, “one or more photographs may be enlarged and framed for use in the Central Fire Station’s lobby,” along with photos of other historic fires.

Anyone who is willing to donate a copy of his or her photos to the department can call Johnson at 942-6335, e-mail jason.johnson@bgrme.org or leave the photos at the Central Fire Station on Main Street in Bangor.

With your photos, please include your name, address and telephone phone number.

Johnson also reported that Bangor Fire Department Hose 5 Fire Museum has acquired an antique leather bucket, a brass fire officer’s speaking trumpet and a leather helmet, circa 1800.

Museum volunteers are now seeking one or more glass display cases to display these items that were purchased from donations made by the family and friends of Bangor firefighter Louis Morelli, who died last November, Johnson wrote.

He added that Capt. Matt Costello of Hose 5 Fire Museum welcomes donations of memorabilia that pertain not only to the Bangor Fire Department, but also to other area fire departments.

Such contributions are “always welcome,” Johnson reported.

If you have items you believe might be appropriate for the museum at 247 State St., call Costello at 945-0170.

Speaking of the museum, you are reminded that the Hose 5 Fire Museum is hosting its annual Fireman’s Valentine’s Day Ball from 6 p.m. to midnight Valentine’s Day, Saturday, Feb. 14, at the Bangor Banquet and Conference Center on Hogan Road.

Tickets are $60 per couple, and dinner is included.

You can purchase tickets at the Central Fire Station, or by calling the station at 942-6335.

Those of us who call the Bangor area home are so very grateful that we have such dedicated public servants in our city and neighboring communities.

We probably don’t tell them often enough, but such a catastrophic event as the Masonic Building fire certainly makes us stop and think about all of them and the services they provide.

To say we are proud of them is an understatement.

We are, however, deeply saddened by what this loss means not only to the Masons and those they serve, but what it means to the owners of River City Gallery and Yankee Shoe Repair, whose businesses were housed there.

We wish them well and hope they find new quarters soon.

But, ultimately, we are most thankful that this spectacular fire was contained, that it spread no further, that there were no serious injuries and that no lives were lost.

We count our blessings and savor our memories of a building that in its final days was so hauntingly beautiful.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.