The Last Alarm

[catman]

The Last Alarm

My father was a fireman.
He drove a big red truck
and when he'd go to work each day
he'd say, "Mother wish me luck."

Then Dad would not come home again
'til sometime the next day.
But thing that bothered me most
was the thing's some folks would say

"A firemen's life is easy,
he eats and sleeps and plays,
and sometimes he won't fight a fire
for days and days."

When I first heard these words
I was too young to understand
but I knew when people had trouble
Dad was there to lend a hand.

Then my father went to work one day
and kissed us all goodbye
but little did we realize
that night we all would cry.

My father lost his life that night
when the floor gave way below
and I'd wondered why he'd risk his life
for someone he did not know.

But now I truly realize
the greatest gift a man can give
is to lay his life on the line
so that someone else might live.

So as we go from day to day
and we pray to God above
say a prayer for your local fireman.
He may save the one's you love.

[SparrowHawk62]

Wow, that's some powerfull stuff. Thank you for that post, I'll be passing that along.

R.I.P. John "Danny" Marshall, Thomas Foley, The Fischer Brothers
all lost at the WTC on September 11th.

[39mto39g]

Last Christmas eve I fell through a burned out floor, Well, almost through, I caught myself and as I lay in the hole looking down at the fire below me, I thought two things, 1. Im gona die in someones house that I don't even know. 2. This is what a chicken sees on a rotisery in a BBQ pit.
Then this hand came down and lifted me out of the hole, My driver, Dave.
The fire department is a nessesary evel when it comes to taxpayers. Until we are needed. Last year I seen my crew put there lives on the line, literaly, 20 times. most of the time the person had no idea who they were being saved buy. Im about as proud of my crew as can be, these guys are truly the best at what they do. And I get to work with them.

Ron

[catman]

Ron...I remember when you went through the floor, damn glad you are still with us.

We keep a fairly accurate total of water hauled and sprayed as the area we serve is totally rural and we always have to have a water shuttle. In 2003, my department, sprayed over 83,000 gallons of water.

Thanks for your service. Sorry to hear about your ladder truck! (We got a new pumper after our last grass fire when the chief decided to take it off road and got the thing stuck, then the wind switched!)

Trav

[39mto39g]

Talked with our training department, he said that He deals with Texas and NFA and that Texas is unique in that funding is easy. But he gave me a web link for you to try. Look around in it.

http://www.doj.state.wi.us/dci/arson/

Ron

[catman]

Ron...thanks for the info. i will check it out and let you know what happens.

TRav