Answering the Call

I live about 5 miles from the firehouse; some members live a block away. For this reason, it's hard for me to get to the station house in time to 'make' a call. That is, I often arrive after the truck has left the building.

That's ok -- it means that a situation, whatever it is, has been handled expediently. But on a personal level, it's a bummer. When little boys dream of being firemen, they imagine sliding down a pole, hopping onto the side of a fire engine, rushing to the fire, and hosing down a burning house. Little boys don't dream of sitting around a card table on donated swivel chairs, leafing thru Fire Engineering Magazine and chatting about the local synagogs, but those are some of my most recent activities. One time I even rushed to a late-night call only to discover that my pager had been on repeat mode -- the 'emergency' had occurred over an hour earlier.

My blue light doesn't allow me to speed to the scene, but it has occasionally suggested, gently, that other motorists kindly move to the side so that I can get downtown a bit faster. But since at least 90% of the calls are false alarms (smoke detectors that picked up a bit of burnt bacon, for example), there is little reason to rush to the station. This is especially true since we have enough volunteers to handle almost any call.

While reading one of the many magazines on the card table, I happened upon a page dedicated to those who had given their lives in the line of duty during the past month. Of the eight who had died, two had perished while attempting to get to the emergency. In one case a freak storm caused a fatal car accident, but in another, the volunteer had driven too fast to the scene of a minor motorcycle accident. He lost control of his car and wound up crashing into a tree. Upon reflection, I decided to slow down a bit while responding to my pager.

I did make it to the scene of a minor car accident on a slippery night last week. Two cars had collided near the Wallkill Bridge, and I soon found myself directing traffic while standing out in the rain for over an hour. It was nice that I could finally help out, and the experience was a positive one...even tho I didn't get to hose down a burning house.