GEARHART Carl and Elnora Keni Hertig were driving home from Astoria with some friends when they saw the flames.

As they rounded the corner near Cullaby Lake, they realized that their company, Reed & Hertig Packing Co., was fully engulfed in fire. Despite firefighters efforts, it burned to the ground.

Now, nearly 50 years after that blaze, the Gearhart Rural Fire District has a new substation on U.S. Highway 101 and Westlake Road, not too far from the meat packing plant, which was rebuilt soon after the fire.

No one can say for sure that the fire was the impetus for Carl Hertig to donate the 40,000-square-foot parcel to the fire district. But before he died in 1997, he made it clear that he wanted the fire district to have it. Elnora Hertig signed over the deed shortly after his death.

Its nice that Carl can be honored for what he did, that it can fill a need in that area, Elnora Hertig said before the new substation was dedicated Saturday.

As the guest of honor during the celebration, she rode a fire truck to the substation and was given a bouquet of roses from Ken Weber, vice chairman of the rural fire district board.

Before her ride in the truck, Hertig admitted to being nervous. But afterward, she confided, It was fun.

District Lt. Chad Sweet, who also is city administrator for Gearhart, took her and other family members on a tour of the three-bay station, named Hertig Station, and described some of the equipment assigned to it. A pumper truck, a water tender and mini-pumper for wildland fires will be at the station most of the time.

With the station in place, volunteer firefighters living or working outside of the city of Gearhart will no longer have to travel to the city station to get into their turnouts and grab their equipment before they can head to a fire. Instead, they will be able to do that at a much closer location.

Sweet said the station should reduce response time, and firefighters will be more motivated. In the past, if they arrived at the city station after the others had left for a fire, there was nothing for them to do but sweep, he said.

The dedication ceremony attracted firefighters from Gearhart and Seaside, along with residents from the Cullaby Lake community and surrounding neighborhoods.

We went door-to-door to support this, said Janet Packard, the treasurer of the Shore Pines Homeowners Association. The association also voted to buy a new refrigerator for the substation.

With the addition of the new substation, Packard said her fire insurance rates have gone down from $1,200 to $500 annually.

In 2009, voters approved a five-year, $750,000 bond measure to construct a substation and to operate the fire district; the rural fire district pays an annual fee of $106,000 a year to the city of Gearhart to provide fire service to the unincorporated area between Gearhart and Warrenton.

Construction on the substation began last year. It opened in April. The open house was an opportunity for the fireboard to thank supporters and the firefighters, said Robert Kloss, board chairman.

We wanted this to be Elnoras and the firefighters day, Kloss said.

Carl Hertig was born in Garibaldi and was raised with four siblings in Seaside. His mother supported the family.

When he was 14, he began working in a meat market, and when he grew older, he operated Carls meat market inside the Piggly Wiggly store on the corner of Broadway and Holladay Drive.

Dad always handed out hot dogs to the kids, said his son, Kevin Hertig.

In 1959, Carl Hertig and his business partner, Bob Reed, purchased the meat packing plant on Highway 101. Later, Hertig bought Reed out, according to the family. Kevin Hertig currently owns it.

Dad remembered his roots well, his son said. He would give a lot anonymously, always to the kids baseball gloves, shoes.

The property he gave to the fire district was part of the land that he and other partners who formed the Golden Tee development company used to build a housing development. The only restriction he put on the gift was that it had to be used for fire district purposes.

Unlike some donors elsewhere who request that their names be attached to the structure they are contributing to, the Hertigs made no such request. Kloss suggested to the board, and the board agreed that the substation should be named after the Hertigs.

We didnt know this was going to be the Hertig station, said Kevin Hertig, who called it an honor and a surprise.

During a brief ceremony, Kloss and Weber thanked the supporters, as well as builder Larry Helligso and architect Philip McCurdy. Then, Gearhart Assistant Fire Chief John Baum gave Elnora Hertig a sweatshirt.

Now youre a member of the family, he told her.

Just as long as I dont have to drive, she replied.