Yes, the crews have been great. There are signs all over town and around their base station at the fairgrounds saying “we love our firefighters.”
It was funny - they moved the bigger helicopters to a field further out of town, and I was asking the air ops chief why. They were at our little private airport right by town, and he said he was concerned that people were getting bothered by the noise. I said, “Are you kidding? The sound of the helos going overhead soothes us and calms us and tells us you’re still on the job!”
The church I attend had this old building on the property which was “used for exercises” by the local fire department for a few months until finally it got burned down completely this summer. The minister, who lived in the parsonage on the other side of the old building, used the Children’s sermon to talk about things which various firefighters do well, like holding hoses, or aiming water, or feeling the house next door to make sure it isn’t getting too hot–that one was the minister’s favorite.
*Well, not cute, exactly, or funny exactly, but you, know, I just wanted to post something which shows that I appreciate where you are coming from.