I recently spoke at a Christian school, to the junior high and senior high class. One of the questions that I got asked was, what was the most rewarding call that I ran during my career? Believe it or not, I do not remember which call that I told them about. We ran a lot of calls when I was in Chester, when I was in Manchester, when I was at the airport station, and even when I was in Matoaca and Ettrick. There were calls that went well and there were calls that did not go so well. We fought fire and we provided medical care just about every day that we went to work. I worked during Tropical Storm Fran and Hurricane Isabel. I still drive my wife crazy when I say, we had a fire there or we ran a medical call there. What is amazing is that I still remember those days like it was yesterday.
Over the years, there were lives saved that we may have been recognized for, and there were lives saved that we did not get recognized for. I remember going to an awards ceremony one night where the fire chief opened the ceremony by reading a letter written by a citizen about the heroic actions taken to save her mother. As I listened to the story, it was a story that I was very familiar with, familiar because our crew ran the call. It was a wonderful letter, to which the fire chief stated that this was the essence of what the evening was about. Interestingly enough, that letter was the only recognition of that Sunday morning after Isabel. I can truly say that we never did what we did for any type of recognition. We saw every call as the most important call of our career. I had a great lieutenant that always used to say, “One call at a time.” I remember a day that we had been dispatched to a medical call on T14, while moments later; a full assignment would be dispatched to a house fire in our first due. My crew preferred the fire over the medical call, but we had a responsibility, by being the closest unit to the medical call. This was one of the most memorable medical calls of my career that ended tragically.
Even with all that I have already written, some of my most memorable days had nothing to do with an emergency response. Three days that stick out dealt with two school teachers that were retiring and a sick goat. The two teachers used the same words on totally different days, “I have always had a dream.” One’s dream was to go up in the basket of an aerial ladder. I was assigned to T14 and we were able to make that dream come true. The other teacher’s dream was to slide down a pole in a fire station. I was in Ettrick, one of the three stations with a pole and we made that dream reality. Being in a position to make a person’s dreams come true is one of the neatest and most humbling things that I have ever been a part of. The sick goat fits into those three most memorable days. I told you this story before, but I ran into the goat’s owner the other day and he told me that the goat was doing fine. Let me just say, that was a Sunday at Fire Station 1 like no other.
I will conclude this with what I think was a Saturday afternoon in Chester. A young boy brought his bicycle to us to pump his tire up. His dad told us that he would not let anyone else pump up his bike tire. Long story short, I literally blew up his tire. At that moment, we caught a multi-company call in our first due. My crew was laughing so hard and refused to let me live it down. After the call, we went to Walmart, and bought a new tire and tube. In the end, the fire chief would come to Station 1, telling us that the bicycle story was one of the greatest human interest stories that he had heard recently. To sum up a career in one call is impossible, but to sum up a career as a journey with some of the greatest men and women that I have ever known is what I always remember.
