We live in the boonies in New England. �Life here is alot slower than in Boston, Portland, Concord, etc.
Some of the things we have to deal with include:
The only fire
hydrant in town is on the front lawn of the chief, and it's not hooked
up anything.
Not only snow,
but mud season means chains on the tires of the apparatus at times.
We cover several
islands on a major lake, as well as some smaller lakes. �Fire boats
go in the water early in the spring, and stay there until late fall, early
winter. �During the winter, we use snowmobiles.
We are also in
the middle of the mountains. �Forest fires are not unusual, and we have
had some major ones recently. �We're still waiting for the big one,
which, historically, is well over-due.
Mutual aid is
important to us. �There are 2 full-time firefighters in the next town
24 hours a day, and 2 during the day full-time next town over in the other
direction. �Other than that, the nearest full time departments are all
over 20 miles away.
We've had fires
big enough to have over 20 companies at the scene. �During the winter,
our equipment, including regulator assemblies on air packs, freeze up. �So
we need all the help, and blow dryers we can get. �(We use the blow
dryers to thaw out frozen couplings.)
We've been known
to use saplings for splinting materials because we occasionally run out of
splints on island/backwoods calls.
We're a small
enough area people-wise to know/be related to a fair amount of the people
for whom we respond. �And sometimes that is not a good thing.
It's an area in
which the general rule of thumb is: if you can't take care of it yourself,
and it's not holding a gun/chainsaw/knife or other such weapon, call the
fire department.
"Help, I've fallen
and can't get up" calls are frequent. �We pick 'em up, take them to
the bathroom (so they won't fall again trying to get there), tuck them in.
�And worry when we haven't been to their house in a while.
It's not unusual
for a postmistress/postmaster in town to ask us to "just swing by and check
- he/she didn't come in at the usual time to check their mail". �And
we do it cheerfully.
Compared to other
places, we have a relatively small drug problem in the area. �Alot of
us don't lock our doors except in the summer when the influx of "summer people"
happens. We can walk around perfectly safe at all hours. �But slowly
and surely, those things that are the norm in larger, more urban areas, are
making their way to us.
We're more in
danger of coming across a rutting moose, an angry mother bear, or a coydog
than we are from carjackings.
Our departments
are small enough so everyone knows everyone else, and a good many of us are
related in one form or another. That can be comforting when you're in a town
15 miles away and you have a major motor vehicle accident, and YOU'RE the
driver! �(WHICH medic did you want???)
Rolling 4 and
5 inch hose UP a mountain is not a fun thing. Especially in the summer.
Dry hydrants,
tanker shuttles, drafting from lakes/ponds/streams/farm ponds. And hoping
that fish don't get caught in the strainer.
In many ways,
firefighting here is more difficult than in urban areas. �But we wouldn't
change it for the world.
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