Sheriff Kring Injured in Explosion; Surgery Successful

This article has been corrected from its original version. Please see details below.

 At 10:38pm on the night of July 14, an explosion like nothing this reporter has ever seen rocked the derelict building burning at 346 Sunrise Avenue. The force of the explosion was so great the windows of nearby buildings were shattered, the ground shook, and one man was thrown into a freestanding wall with the force of a tornado, breaking two vertebrae in his back. That man was Sheriff David Kring of Willow Cove.

As the fire continued to rage, EMTs on the scene rushed to Sheriff Kring’s aid and almost immediately transported him to nearby Thomas Laughton Memorial Hospital. There, doctors discovered the broken vertebrae and scheduled emergency back surgery for the following day. That surgery was successfully performed yesterday morning, and Sheriff Kring is expected to make a qualified recovery, but it will be a long road to that point.

Sheriff Kring was elected to his post in 1999 and has served the Willow Cove community with honor and distinction ever since. Taking his post in darker days, he has ushered Willow Cove into its current period of prosperity, and all signs pointed to his continuing to shepherd our fine community into a bright future. For the time being, all Sheriff’s Department duties and activities will be overseen by Deputy Danny Young, until a more suitable long-term solution can be found.

The building at 346 Sunrise Avenue has been vacant for the better part of a decade. Its last tenant was a plumbing supply company. Fire officials are trying to determine the cause of the blaze, and are not currently ruling anything out, including criminality. Amazingly, no one but Sheriff Kring was injured in the fire or explosion.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Sunrise Avenue as Sunset Avenue. The fire occurred at 346 Sunrise Avenue. There is no Sunset Avenue in Willow Cove. We regret the error.