Years ago, I used to live near a fire station.
I would drive by during the midst of my workday grind and see a bunch of guys – firefighters – playing basketball or shooting pool or washing cars.
With envy, or, actually, jealousy, I would say to anyone within earshot: “I would love to be a fireman. Ninety-five percent of your day is spent shooting hoops or improving your pool game, then boom, you have a burst of excitement and you’re called out to extinguish a fire. That’s the life.”
And while there is still a part of me that would love to be a fireman (a trait found in nearly every male human being), the romantic notion of the hoops-shooting, billiards- brilliant, never-get-hurt hero firefighter is long gone. I know it not to be so.
The hero part is indeed still true, but it does not come without risk and sacrifice. 9/11 showed us that a quarter of a century ago.
And so does the work of firefighters here in South Georgia as we battle another nasty batch of wildfires.
Most firefighters in these parts are of the volunteer variety. The majority of their hours are spent fixing cars or filing paperwork or grading papers or working on the line in their day jobs.
But any minute, they can hear the call. They must drop what they are doing and hurry out to the fire station, then to a fire. It could be a five-foot-wide grass fire in an elderly lady’s backyard that takes 10 minutes.
Or, as is currently the case, an enormous forest fire that rages 60 feet high and takes months to contain. You never know when you get the call.
Our local volunteer department has response times better than some full-time units. How do they do that? I don’t know. I’m sure it has something to do with very fast driving.
More probably, it can be attributed to a strong urge to serve, to get the job done, to be the best. If only all of us – me included – would perform our jobs with such pride, much less our “hobbies.”
Their pay is a pittance. There’s very little glory involved. Their reward, really, is of community service – of helping their neighbors in a time of need. I consider it probably the most noble of callings.
And while hundreds of firefighters are now sprawled across South Georgia battling a series of blazes, they are but a David versus a burning Goliath. On Goliath’s side is Mother Nature, who has turned our land’s dry sandy soil into a thatch of hay. On David’s side – savvy, determination, and pride.
The week ahead, and perhaps the month ahead, predicts little help from the clouds. The current drought is more severe than the ones in 2007 or 2011 – the last great conflagrations to char this region.
Why do the tropical storms wait until football season to sit on top of us?
If left unchecked, these fires are such that they could make us all embers. These firefighters are our only protection, and I think I speak for most folks when I say their efforts, and their commitment, are greatly appreciated.
That said, we can help them. Pray for rain.
• Len Robbins is the editor of The Clinch County News. He can be reached at lrobbins@clinchcounty news
