The Hardware Store

Locale: rural hardware store, directly off a state highway

Dispatcher: sister of one of the FF involved

� It was a bad fire, necessitating evacuation of the homes and business within 1/2 mile radius due to burning chemicals. The one saving grace was that the spring shipment of fertilizer hadn't arrived yet.

� What was troublesome about this call was the number of people standing by in quarters providing station coverage, having to listen to calls for ambulances, person after person being transported and not knowing who'd been injured or maybe killed.

� Two hours into the incident, dispatch called our station. Had you not known her, you never would have known how scared she was listening to her on the scanner.

� But when I answered the phone at the station, and asked if she'd like to speak with her brother, she burst into tears.

� I've been told by people who do critical stress that it's worse NOT being on scene, because you DON'T know.

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