Van Carlisle received a letter from Sande and Jim Johnson, survivors of the tornado that struck Oklahoma City on May 3rd, 1999. This is their story...
Dear Mr. Carlisle,
Please express our gratitude to each and every person who works at Fire King for their efforts at providing a quality product. Without our four-drawer FireKing file cabinet, we would have had major difficulties during the past 7 weeks. On May 3, we watched as a tornado headed our direction, and took the same basic precautions we always take. We backed up the computer and placed the disc in the file cabinet with an assortment of other valuables. Continuing to watch the weather reports and then with visual observations, we knew it was time to take cover.
We had to be dug out of the rubble that had once been our 2200 square foot home with an in-home office. We were in the utility room with our 18 year old son and the dog, buried under appliances. As it turned out, there was no other place in the house we could have survived.
We lost most of our possessions in a few minutes, including three vehicles, watercraft, storage buildings, clothing, furniture. We had to evacuate the area that night and were not allowed back in the neighborhood until late the next day. During that time, the office portion of our home was bulldozed as a part of the recovery effort.
Just imagine your most valuable possessions: birth & marriage certificates, passports, and old family Bible, jewelry, vehicle titles, insurance records, income tax forms...and the list continues. These items were all in the FireKing file cabinet - safe, secure, and undamaged. Jimmy had prepared payroll checks for his employees earlier that day. They were ready to go along with the computer backup copy of our business accounting system, also safely stored in our Fire King file cabinet.
Days later, a simple phone call to Fire King is all it took to get a replacement file cabinet delivered at no cost. There are no words to fully express our appreciation to every individual at Fire King. Each and every detail of thought and work that goes into each file cabinet contributes to a quality finished product.
The entire house was in small pieces. Most of the "treasures" stored in the attic were never found. The current tornado rating scale lists an F-5 as the most powerful tornado and this one exceeded that scale. Our house received a direct hit. No walls were left standing.
God had His protective hand on our lives and those of our neighbors that evening. We are alive! And, thanks to our foresight in purchasing a Fire King file cabinet, we were able to quickly move on with our lives.
Sincerely,
Sande Johnson |
