In the Line of Fire
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| 8/26/2009 |
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| For firefighters everywhere, when the sound of their pager goes off, they know that someone`s property or life is counting on them. For volunteer firefighters, this isn`t their job. "This is my second job," Brett Casavant, Asst. Chief, Burlington Fire Department. Many volunteer fire fighters put on the yellow suit because fighting fires is an adrenaline rush they can`t get anywhere else. "I don`t have to do it, I want to do it," says Kenton Osborn, Minot Rural Fire Department. Before they are able to fight the fire, they have to train. "Training is critical," says Casavant. These volunteers will spend more than 100 hours a year training for all types of situtations, from grass fires, to house fires, to car extracations. "We train like it`s real, we don`t have time for mistakes," says Jeremy Scott, Minot Rural Fire Department. Especially when these guys are a huge financial risk. The uniforms themselves cost around $2,000 each. A more impressive number, is that they only have 60 seconds to get their uniforms on. On Wednesday, the volunteers were at the training grounds preparing to put out a controlled burn. "Training is important because a lot of people learn from mistakes. In a real fire, we don`t have time for mistakes," says Scott. The Minot Rural Fire Department is one of the busiest departments in the state. They face up to 150 fires or more a year. For the burn, they invited KMOT to help fight the flames. A haystack was lit on fire. The controlled fire got to around 800 degrees fahrenheit. That`s almost twice as hot as a burning stove. KMOT could only last about two minutes in the burning building, but these men stay until the job is done, until the victims are out of the building, and the flames are all gone. "We have a motto at the fire department and that is everybody goes home," says Rod Thyrus, Minot Rural Fire Department. Most jobs require hard work and dedication and along with that usually comes a paycheck. But for volunteer fire fighters, their paycheck is the satisfaction of knowing they are doing an important job and needs to be done. |
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