On a weekend night not too long ago, my whole family was gathered to watch some TV together. It was one of those rare moments when everyone was in the house, and even rarer because we had all agreed on a show. It was turning into the perfect way to unwind after a long week of work and school and all the other wonderful chaos that having four kids means.
And then my phone started beeping loudly. My oldest son and I both volunteer at a fire company, and that sound was a fire call. We both sprang out of our seats and ran to my car.
We hit every red light along the way, and as a result, we missed getting on the first truck leaving the station. Somehow, we managed to throw on our fire gear just in time to jump on the second one. After a hasty drive along some dark and twisting roads, we arrived in the neighborhood where the house was burning. Being on one of the later trucks, we had to park a long way from the fire.
We moved as quickly as one can when dressed in bulky fire-resistant suits, heavy boots, wearing an air pack strapped to your back, and carrying heavy fire tools. I’m a runner, but a short walk like this can get my heart rate up pretty fast.
Once we were in the house, we were told to help track down sources of smoke. There was no more visible fire, but black smoke kept pouring into various parts of the house. We were assigned a room, and started poking holes in the ceiling and walls near where the smoke was emerging. This went on for a while, with crews working in several rooms at once.
We checked the basement. We checked the attic. We ran water. We moved furniture. We chopped up some of the floor. Still the smoke kept coming.
Firefighters spend a lot of time training for moments like these. Training starts with a 180-hour basic course, then your own firehouse trains you on all of the equipment they operate until you pass an in-house test. It can take more than a year. Most firefighters keep taking classes after their initial course to learn to operate engines and ladder trucks, advanced firefighting techniques, how to rescue people from cars. Plus, we drill every week.
My firehouse responded to over 600 calls last year, but only a very small number required the use of the skills we learn and train on. On many of those calls I saw a lot of ways to burn food and smelled a lot of things that were unpleasant, but not dangerous.
While none of us hope for a fire, we do hope that if there is a fire, we will get to be on the truck and put our training to use helping our neighbors.
After more than an hour, the smoke relented and we began the process of packing up our equipment.
Safely getting to a fire takes a lot of focus and attention, and going into a burning building requires even more. There are dozens of voices, people banging away and spraying water and giving orders and checking on each other’s safety, the smoke makes it difficult — if not impossible — to see and while the sounds make it hard to hear, the masks make it hard to be heard.
When all that goes away, you take a minute to look around and you notice that you are standing in someone’s home. There are wedding pictures, a book laying open on the coffee table, a child’s toys. The things you could not see when the house was filled with smoke now come into focus.
I have only been to a few actual fires, but this is the moment that what has happened hits me. This was someone else’s cozy weekend night. I jumped off my couch to get there, but they had to jump off their couch to get to safety.
In this community, we rely on each other. If volunteers had not arrived that night, there would have been nothing left to save. If you are reading this, your local fire department is largely — if not entirely — made up of volunteers, and your local firehouse probably needs your help. Stop by on a drill night, and check it out.
Source: Berkshire mont