Thank them a lot, thank them often

I’ve been listening to the scanner all day, which is not unusual since its never shut off, but today it was in case there were things happening with the hurricane that I should respond or stand by for. Fortunately for the squad, the hurricane didn’t amount to as much as predicted and we only had the usual sort and amount of calls, and extra help wasn’t needed.
The fire companies are a whole ‘nother story, though. The county called all departments out to stand by in quarters starting at 8 a.m. today. Many of them have been flat out since before that. Heavy rain brought flooded and washed out roads, and then flooded basements. Now the wind has picked up a bit (nowhere near the predicted but it’s a bit brisk) and trees are starting to fall. Fire departments responded for a family needing help getting out through the water surrounding their house and to evacuate residents of a mobile home park being flooded by the creek it is next to. Some went to fire alarms activated by the storm, or power blips. Some checked out a car stranded in water on a flooded road. Then a barn fire, which was burned to the ground by the time it was discovered and the first fire fighter got there.
They’ve been running between setting up warnings at the impassable roadways to pumping water from a basement before a furnace or other costly appliances are ruined or a fire started, to trees fallen on power lines or across roadways or both, to assisting rescue squads with emergency medical calls - and there’s no sign of them getting any break soon.
Hopefully there have been enough people so they can take a little rest between calls, and also hopefully the faithful, helpful auxiliaries have been making food for them.
It’s not just our county, either. I can hear some areas of Greene County and they’ve been just as busy if not busier. All day. As I am sure others throughout the storm track area have been.
And you know what’s the best part? They do this because they want to help their families, friends, neighbors, communities. That’s right, they don’t get any pay except for the grateful thanks of the people they help, and the waves when they march past in the firemen’s parade. No pay, no benefits, no retirement. They just want to help. And they do. We’d be in a sorry mess without them.
Here’s what I think: these men and women don’t get enough credit. Friends have posted a video on Facebook of an area firehouse with floodwater around it – where are the people who staff this building? Out helping their neighbors – I wrote the first part yesterday, and this morning they are heading out again, after a full day and night of helping, to check out an odor of smoke in one of their neighbors homes. Hoping that it is not a fire, for everyone’s sake. The firefighters we invited to see the dress rehearsal of Grease, after they responded to our cast house fire, kept thanking us for the invitation, and I kept saying no, we thank you for what you did-this is little enough we can do. We all need to give these people a great big THANK YOU for everything they do, and we need to do it more often