A short tale.
The first Monday of the month is the rescue squad meeting. I always go; VWife has been going on occasion even though she’s not officially a squad member, but she volunteers enough with fundraising and the like that she is justified. Plus, whenever we cook, she goes to eat.
Last night, she decided she was going, because she had some fundraising business to attend to, plus she made a double batch of brownies. We were within 2 minutes of the rescue station when we saw blue lights and a lot of haze ahead. Apparently, there was a big brush fire earlier in the day, and it was flaring up again. I called the dispatcher, suggesting Mayberry be paged; she ended up calling NC Forestry instead. Fine with me, but I vacillated for a minute or three between continuing to the rescue meeting, or doubling back to the fire station. This left me open to a whole raft of crap from da wife.
I ended up continuing on to the meeting. About 15 minutes into it, DEEEEE duuuuh BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP [pause] [other tones] DEEEEE duuuuh BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP “Station 20 (Mayberry), Station 50 (Pixley). Check in for traffic. Report of a structure fire in the abandoned store on highway 158…” An old building in Cracktown West was burning. It’s notorious for being a hangout spot for the druggies to socialize and smoke cigarettes.
I jumped up, and smacked VWife on her thigh, because there were 2 of us and one vehicle. “Come on, you’re taking me to the station.” This POed her, of course.
We get outside, and she said, “You just go, I’ll bum a ride home.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, go!” So I did.
The fire wasn’t much. One corner of the building was toast, and there was fire in the attic. The same forestry guy who was supposed to be handling the flare up spotted it, and using his equipment, knocked the flames down enough to save the building before we got there. The corner involved was the smoking spot, BTW.
I got to play with a pike pole, while two small hoses doused flame. Overall, there was lot of butt-pickin’ to be done. My station cleared in about 20 minutes, and I got back to the rescue station in time to second the motion to close, and provide a way home for VWife.
“You just had to be in on the action, didn’t you?” Yup, I did. 