CARTERVILLE - As all good theater types know, the show must go on.

And thanks to the quick response of one John A. Logan College employee and subsequent efforts by other staffers and the Carterville Fire Department, the show did - and will - go on.

When the fire alarm sounded just before midnight Wednesday, Jim Horn was working in the vocational building on the north side of the Carterville campus, said JALC President Robert Mees.

"Once the alarm went off, Jim was able to track down the area where it was sounding. He narrowed it down to the set construction area of the auditorium," Mees said. "He rushed over to the auditorium, saw smoke everywhere and found a fire in a melted plastic Dumpster."

Horn, a 15-year employee in the maintenance department, grabbed a fire extinguisher, Mees said, and once security arrived, pulled the trash container out of the building.

"We are so thankful for his quick reaction. Because it is the set construction area, there are props and wood all over. It could have spread quickly and caused a lot of damage," Mees said. "He did an exceptional job of pinpointing where the fire was and getting over there before the whole B wing was affected."

Mees said the Carterville Fire Department and other JALC staffers worked quickly to rid the building of smoke before a 10 a.m. matinee performance of "The Man Who Lost the River" was set to take the auditorium stage.

"The smoke was bad at first, but they did a great job of getting it out and the show was able to go on," Mees said.

Mees said Horn and others followed the plans prepared to deal with such an emergency.

"There is no doubt that without Jim Horn's quick response this fire would have spread quickly and there is no telling what we would be dealing with today. I think what he did is remarkable," he said. "This is an example of the plans we have in place working to perfection."

For Horn, however, the incident was all in a day's work.

"This is just part of my job," he said.

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