sirens

today in glitch it was zilleoween. maybe i will write to you about that later. maybe.

but with all the festivities i didn't want to go out for too long since i had a secret contest running so i rode my bike up from my house around the preston pond trails and i had only been home a few minutes when i heard the first of the sirens.

it's not super unusual to hear sirens up here, because every now and again someone needs an ambulance or there's an accident but this is a very small neighborhood in a pretty remote area, so a siren means one of my neighbors is having a bad day.

this was different, though. there were three ambulances and a fire truck in the first group coming past my house. and i heard more sirens coming on nashville road and notch road, and that about covers the three ways to get here.

it is either a structure fire or a bad, bad accident.

i looked out my window and saw a plume of smoke. okay, structure fire. i can tell where the house is that's going up, which narrows it down to only a few of my neighbors.

i want to know what's going on. i want to see the trucks.

but one more person on the scene will not do anything but be one person in the way.

after a while some of the trucks go away. ambulances depart the scene with lights off, which means no patients aboard. the plume of smoke stays steady and then decreases some. more trucks leave.

and then after a while, one more firetruck comes, but it's a tanker. i figure the fire is under control and they're just drowning it now so i figure it would be all right to go down and have a look so i get on my bike and go.

there are tons of firetrucks when i get there, and some of my neighbors standing around.

it was the garage of our road crew supervisor. a nearby neighbor called 911 and the first responders arrived at about twenty minutes in.

that's pretty amazing, since if you drive fast it takes fifteen minutes to get into town where the squads are.

the guys tell me that usually jericho-underhill fire is first on scene out here, but today the bolton squad was here first, along with richmond rescue. essex and williston also responded in short order, and i believe it was the williston trucks that left first because by the time i got there the williston trucks had gone.

nobody was home and nobody was hurt. the garage was a total loss, but the house was saved and none of the surrounding stuctures caught fire.

as an additional mercy, there was a brief rainshower during the fire that dampened the tall grass surrounding the garage so there was less worry of the fire spreading to the meadow or the forest.

i stood out with the neighbors and watched the tanker trucks go back and forth to the millbrook for water and we talked about neighbor stuff and fireman stuff and were generally pleased with the hard work and quick response of our local squads and our thanks and relief.

and while i was there i took some pictures of some nice shiny firetrucks.