Locals recognized after preventing Mountain Store fire

In the late evening Aug. 21, Larry Bourdeau, a man with a history of arson-related offenses, tried to put the Mountain Store in Boulder Creek to the torch. A surveillance video showed Bourdeau setting fire to the papers on a bulletin board attached to the front of the building and leaving the scene.
But that’s not all the camera spotted.
About 15 minutes after Bourdeau fled, the camera recorded three young men smothering the flames before they could spread to the rest of the building.
Based on the surveillance footage, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies identified and arrested Bourdeau at his home about five hours later. The three heroes, however, could not be identified.
Sgt. Dan Campos said the Boulder Creek residents — Mike Kanuk, 52; Ben Thomas, 12; and Sam Nicholosi, 15 — came forward about a week later with their account of that night.
According to Kanuk’s wife, Ann Thomas, the four of them were headed home from a B.B. King and Buddy Guy performance at the Mountain Winery.
Just after midnight, she said, Ben suddenly called out, “Stop! There’s a fire!”
Kanuk parked, pulled some bottles of water and soda from the car and ran with the two boys over to the fire, where they poured the liquid on the flames and stomped out the fire.
Andrew Kim, who owns and operates the Mountain Store with his wife, said he was grateful for the rescue of his business.
“There are good people (in Boulder Creek),” Kim said.
Campos said that the sheriff’s office wanted the people who’d saved the Mountain Store to step forward, not only so they could be properly recognized, congratulated and thanked, but also to offer eyewitness accounts of the fire.
“(Kanuk, Thomas and Nicholosi coming forward) really helped us to build a case against (Bourdeau), because they’d been there and actually seen the fire in person,” Campos said.
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