Retired Stillwater firefighters gather monthly for coffee, breakfast — and stories

Retired Stillwater firefighters gather monthly for coffee, breakfast — and stories

Retired Stillwater firefighters Jon Conati and Ron Axdahl sat next to each other at breakfast on Thursday morning and talk soon turned to the most traumatic call they ever went on. The fire at Brine’s Meat Market on Main Street in downtown Stillwater on Jan. 22, 1982, caused the death of two firefighters from the Mahtomedi Fire Department. A Stillwater firefighter, Kevin Charlsen, nearly perished. “I was on my way home when the call came in,” Co…