Hot Mama ('s Day)

Fire on Mother's Day

It's rare for me to get on a fire truck heading to a fire. For one thing, there are few structure fires in the area. Moreover, I live nearly 4 miles from the fire house, so by the time I've gotten into my car and driven to the station, most likely I've missed the truck or trucks. Of 140 calls answered, I've probably been on a truck 25 times.

When the call came in today for a structure fire in the neighboring town of Gardiner (assistance requested from our department), I figured I'd end up waiting back at the fire house. I was mentally preparing to find ways to keep busy. But this time, because we sent out our ladder truck late in the game, I got to go along to the fire.

When we got there, companies from Gardiner, some of the other local fire houses, and the firemen from the earlier New Paltz truck, had already extinguished most of the fire. After the ladder truck got there, the group I was with assisted with the last stages, searching for hot spots with the use of thermal imaging cameras. We lifted a tall ladder so that firefighters could check out one roof, and we sent two firemen onto the highest roof using the ladder that's attached to the firetruck.

Since I haven't completed this summer's Firefighter 1 class (or fire camp, as Shirra calls it), I couldn't go up a ladder, so I tried to help as much as I could without getting in the way. I helped get the fan so that we could blow the last of the air from the house, and I helped roll hose at the end.

Happily, no one was hurt in the fire. I think that the house can be repaired, and more importantly, all of the occupants, including a dog, two cats, and many birds, escaped. One of the cats was the last one to leave the house, carried out in the arms of our chief and put into the EMS truck for oxygen. That was the best moment of the day....

Except for the fact that it's Mother's Day. But that's a separate post.