Mike Mannell’s friend woke him up as fire approached

By Angel Carpenter

Blue Mountain Eagle

CANYON CITY – While Bryan Nelson credited Mike Mannell for saving his house, Mike Mannell, in turn, praised another friend for saving Mannell’s life.

“At 11 a.m., we were at a Level 3 evacuation,” Mannell said. “I hadn’t been notified or listening to the radio. I had laid down for a nap at 10 a.m.”

At 11 a.m. a friend of mine from Mt. Vernon, Jeff Compton, a former U.S. Army ranger who spent three years in Iraq, came up to check on me.”

He woke me up and told me the fire was behind my property up on the ridge, heading my way,” he said. “Had he not come by and woke me up, I probably would have perished in the fire that day.”

My wife Ginny was at work that day,” he said.

“Jeff came back an hour later — I gathered all my guns out of the cabin — at the final minute, I ran through the smoke to save my Harley Davidson and parked it at Bryan Nelson’s house next door under a sprinkler, and put a sprinkler on his house.”

As a Vietnam veteran, U.S. Marines, Mannell said he feels, “the brotherhood is alive and well — that’s the truth.”

He added, “I want to give my friend Jeff Compton credit for saving my life — he’s my brother.”