Millerstown Fire Department
The Millerstown Fire Department responded to more than 100 calls for the 2016 year. Our Firefighters's are trained in structural fire fighting, woodland fire fighting, Hazmat, and vehicle extrication and other modalities. The fire department officers for the year of 2017 are as follows:
President: Amber Fegley
Vice President: Dave Foose
Secretary:Emily Craig
Treasurers:
Greg Strayer
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"I
Wish You Could See"
I wish you could know what it is like too search a burning bedroom
for trapped children, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees
burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen
I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 3 in the morning as
I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway,
hoping to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting
his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try to save his
life.
I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste
of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear,
the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely
nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I've become too familiar with.
I wish you could understand how it feels to go home in the morning
after having spent most of the night, hot and soaking wet at a multiple alarm
fire.
I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire "Is
this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What
hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?"
Or to an EMS call? "What is
wrong with the patient? Is it minor or life-threatening? Is the caller really
in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun?"
I wish you could be in the emergency room as a doctor pronounces
dead the beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during
the past 25 minutes. Who will never go on her first date or say the words, "I love you Mommy" again.
I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine
or my personal vehicle, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the
pedal, your arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you fail
to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need
us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took you
forever to get here!"
I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage
years from the remains of her automobile. "What if this was my sister,
my girlfriend or a friend? What were her parents reaction going to be when
they opened the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?"
I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet
my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did
not come back from the last call.
I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally, and sometimes
physically, abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes
of "It will never happen to me."
I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain
or missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to
all the tragedy my eyes have seen.
I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping
save a life or preserving someone's property, or being able to be there in
time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos.
I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy
tugging at your arm and asking, "Is Mommy okay?" Not even being
able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what
to say. Or to have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having
rescue breathing done on him as they take him away in the ambulance. You know
all along he did not have his seat belt on. A sensation that I have become
too familiar with.
Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly
understand or appreciate who I am, we are, or what our job really means to
us...
I wish you could though.
APPRECIATE AND SUPPORT THE LOCAL
EMS WORKERS, FIREFIGHTERS, & LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS IN YOUR AREA. ONE
DAY THEY'LL PROBABLY BE SAVING YOUR PROPERTY OR YOUR LIFE. WHEN YOU SEE THEM
COMING WITH LIGHTS FLASHING,
MOVE OUT OF THE WAY QUICKLY. THEN PRAY FOR THEM AND THE NEED
THEY ARE RACING TOO.