KEEPING THE FIRE GOING [F, 12-3-21]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

Please don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of admiration and appreciation for all fire fighters, but…

 

“Well, first we chop a hole in the side of the house, and then we check the address.”

That’s what Chief Dick Bickel told Helen when she asked how the Arcola, IL volunteer fire department went about its work, one of those Sunday mornings when Dick and the rest of the Methodist volunteer fire fighters jumped up and ran out, and it wasn’t even time for the sermon yet.

It wasn’t quite that bad. They had indeed chopped a hole in the side of the house, but they did have the correct address. The problem was that the fire that was heating the side of the house, and made them think that a hole was necessary, was actually smoldering under some stuff in the flower bed below the front wall. So… that wall got some extra ventilation. But Chief Bickel assured us they wouldn’t do THAT again!

It worried me, though, when that fire department announced that it was going to burn down the house beside ours for practice. It was okay. The new owners wanted it gone, so that they could build a new one. The evening of the practice burn, almost everybody in town came to watch, brought their lawn chairs and set them up across the street. We figured we’d better do so, too.

The frontage of those lots was not wide, so the burning house was only a few yards from our south wall. We started worrying when one of the fire fighters felt our windows and then started spraying a hose onto our wall! Turns out it was getting so hot they thought the windows might explode. Chief Bickel assured us they wouldn’t do THAT again!

 

All this comes up now because fire department burns have been a big issue in Bloomington, IN these past few days. They burned down a really big one. [Actual photo below] Lots of good practice, putting it out, starting it up again, putting it out again. Problem is, it was an old house, with lots of lead paint, that got spread all over the other houses and yards in the area as the winds took the burning house pieces aloft. Chief Jason Moore has assured us that they won’t do THAT again!

Be they volunteer or professional, one of the chief responsibilities of a fire chief seems to be assuring us that they won’t do THAT again!

I suppose they have a special interest in not doing anything that will get them condemned to the fires of hell. I mean, can you imagine a fire chief who is not allowed to put out the fire?

 

Which reminds me of my good friend church member, Archie Yarde, of the Tampico, IL volunteer fire department, may he not be in the fires of hell.

Fires are what fire fighters live for, but volunteers can sometimes go years and years without a call-out. It’s a big deal when one happens. They have a good time, hanging around the fire house, but that is not very exciting. But when a farm house fire erupted, and the Tampico volunteers were summoned, Archie was up on pole on the other side of town, since he was “a lineman for the county.” He didn’t want to miss the fire, so he called ahead to the chief, “I’ve got to stop in town for cigarettes, but keep the fire going until I get there.”

I don’t think that the irascible and unique Archie ever promised that he wouldn’t do THAT again!

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