A cautionary Tale

We got a fire call last night at about 10 pm.
Someone in a boat on a lake south of here saw a fire on shore and called it in on his cell phone as a cottage on fire.  We got the call from the dispatcher as a "structural fire" which means; get everything you have there as soon as possible. Which was no easy job. Four guys from Station 2  got there first with three units, a pumper truck, a tanker, and a van. As we drove out from Station 1 we listened to them on the radio as they tried road after road to find this fire. (the dispatcher didn`t have an address of course)

They found it before we got there with our four units, the chief``s 1/2 ton, a pumper, a rapid attack truck and the wild fire truck (the one I was driving). All together, seven vehicles and 13 firemen converged on this poor guy. Of course, we had to inch through two miles of very narrow, twisting access road to get there.

Turns out that the guy was only burning brush, which was wet and caused a lot of smoke. But, and here's the cautionary part, he didn't have a fire permit.
The chief, advised him that that little fact could cost him some money... in fact, $350 for each unit plus $45 for each fireman.  I think it totals up to around $2800.  enough to put a real damper on your weekend (a fire permit costs $10 and everyone is advised with their tax bill that they need one to burn).

The bad part of those false alarms is that you could have a real fire while you're all out on some back road. And, we did get another call, just after we started home, a tree on fire back near Station 1, so we high tailed it back home as fast as we could.  It turned out to only be a tree across a hydro line causing arcing and a little fire, but it too was at the end of  mile of winding, twisting bush trail. To get out we had to back the big pumper up all the way out.

One of our biggest problems here is that so many people like the feeling of isolation in their cottages.  But they never think that they might someday need a fire truck.

Anyway, most of us got home at midnight... three stayed at the site waiting for the hydro guys to arrive. And, in the end, the Chief took pity on the poor chap and only fined him $350, and then only because he wasn't entirely truthful in his responses.