Thanks to the volunteers

It was Sunday afternoon; I was quite comfortable in my reclining chair watching the Pro Bowl football game when my publisher, Susan Hodge, called me. She wanted to know if I had heard about the fires in Hollister. I told her no but I would look into it. Within a few minutes I was on the Internet and reading the WRAL-TV account of what was fast becoming a major news event.

I then called Jan Myrick, wife of Lee Myrick, fire chief of the Littleton Volunteer Fire Department. I had met her for the first time on Saturday morning at the Littleton Lions Club pancake breakfast. She was there with her husband, Lee, to receive a donation check from the Lions and the Littleton Lake Gaston Festival Committee.  

Jan provided me some initial information about the fires. When I asked her if there was anything I could do she said not that she knew of, but she would call back if something came up. She told me she was staying close to the emergency radio so she could keep up with everything,  

After a few moments of indecision I got dressed and headed up to the Littleton fire house. As I was pulling into the parking area I noticed the television on in the lounge and one person watching it. One of the trucks was out of the garage so I thought things were pretty much under control.

After I parked and went inside I quickly learned that the truck in the garage was there in case anything happened around town. They left one firefighter and a truck in both the Littleton firehouse and the substation for local emergencies. 

There were four or five people inside the lounge, a fireman and two women and a teenage boy and I think another little girl. My apologies to all of them for not getting their names. They greeted me warmly and started talking about the day’s events. 

I quickly learned that they had been fighting fires since before noon. In fact, Tommy Myrick and his wife, Teresa, were at church when they got the call. I immediately thought to myself this is another one of those situations where you don’t realize what people do to help the community until you see it or get involved yourself. 

For me it was a choice. I was sitting at home trying to figure out if I wanted to interrupt my day and go out to see what was going on. They, on the other hand, have a commitment to the community to be there whenever they are needed. 

I say they because when it comes to volunteer firemen the entire family volunteers whether we realize it or not. In this case it was not only them but also their daughter, Ashley, that decided to also give back to their community. 

Within minutes Ashley and Lauren Lesack came in with Assistant Chief Dale Bobbitt. They were returning from a fire on Medoc Mountain road. Ashley is a junior at Halifax Academy and Lauren is a senior at Warren County High School, more importantly they are Junior Firefighters.

They came in all excited because they were able to do more than just deliver the sandwiches they took out to the firefighters. They were excited because they were involved in the actual fighting of the brush fire. I learned later that as junior firefighters there are a lot more things they couldn’t do at a fire scene than there are things they can do.

Listening to the girls relate their story of what they did with all the excitement they were telling it was great. It was the same kind of excitement you would expect of young people when they are able to experience something they really wanted to do. In addition they had cell phones and were showing pictures they took at the scene.

The pictures I saw showed that they were indeed in the thick of the fires. The pictures showed firefighters standing in front of flames ten feet high or higher throughout the entire area. Assistant Chief Bobbitt assured me that they were in no danger, but were very useful. A comment was made that this was a good experience for Lauren; she plans to attend North Carolina State in the fall to study forestry.   

They commented a couple of times about getting clean clothes that didn’t smell like smoke. I thought that it was typical of how I would expect a couple of young girls to be acting. I commented that they should wear the clothes to school to let their friends know what they did on Sunday. They both smiled at me and politely said no way. 

I immediately thought why did you say that, they now think that you are a weird old man who is really out of touch. 

I also thought that there is hope for at least some of these young people. These two junior firefighters, Littleton has three junior firefighters, really went beyond what one would expect for kids there age. To be honest it made me proud to think that I live in the same community as they do. 

It wasn’t long before Teresa and Ashley headed home. I don’t know how long Teresa had been there, but she mentioned that her husband left from church to go to the fire. It really made no difference how long she was there, the fact is she, like many other wives locally, and thousand of wives or husbands nationally, give up precious time with their loved ones so they can give back to their community. 

At that point I recalled what Jan Myrick told me the day before after they received the donation from the Lions. When I was trying to get information from Lee for a caption I caught him off guard. Jan stepped right in and told me that they spend hundreds of hours a year training and keeping their equipment and the firehouse ready to go. 

Lee seemed a little embarrassed that he could not figure out all the hours, at that point I made the comment that for him and other volunteers they probably just did it without thinking of the hours it takes. 

I, for one, would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the volunteer firefighters who do such a great job in Littleton and around the lake. They have to meet the same standards as paid firefighters do; yet they do this as a volunteer taking up their time outside of their regular jobs. 

Thank you for all you do, and thank you to Ashley and Lauren for showing me that there are kids who really care about their community. 

Maurice Emery is the Editor Emeritus of The Littleton Observer. In addition to regular news coverage for the paper, he also writes a weekly column.

Check out his blog at www.athoughtortwo.com

Read and share his past columns with your friend at www.athoughtortwo.com