"Fire"fight #2

I'd just gotten home from work in the early evening Friday when the call came -- a request for six firefighters who could act as a standby crew while the Chief assessed a propane leak at the general store. We jumped at it and made our way to the hall with hazards flashing (those are the signal to others that we're on a fire call).

It wasn't an urgent call, but we still hustled. Bethy and I put out a line towards the offending tank, a 30lb. rustbucket not too far from a much larger propane storage tank. The smell of sour gas was quite noticeable, so the Chief ordered Downtown Denman to be closed off to all traffic, cars and otherwise. I went next door to the bakery/café, where I used to work, and cleared everyone out -- ordering no smoking, no starting of cars -- all as a precaution, prudent because a flukey spark was really the only way this would become a problem. I also cleared out an upstairs tenant of a nearby building. There was a political meeting planned for downtown about the upcoming election/referendum, and a few people were vocally upset they couldn't get there, but the planners just moved it to another location.

Our personal role was to man the barricades at either end of town, Bethy at the north, me at the south (only about 300 yards apart). I took it upon myself to be the guy standing in the road and turning folks away. Something in me enjoys giving the bad news, as you may know. There were two other fellas at the south end, a father and son, and we got to know each other a bit better by chatting over the next few hours. So we simply informed the islanders what was happening, and they all knew the long way around, so it wasn't much of a problem. A few Friday night activites downtown had to be called off because of this hassle.

It was decided to burn off the remaining fuel in the tank -- there's a way to do that safely apparently. Something called a 'tiger torch'. A few of the guys suited up and surrounded the tank with fire foam before the burn-off. Then it became a waiting game, and it was after 10pm before most of the crew was dismissed and the road reopened. Not a harrowing call, though I did get a sense from the others how badly a propane leak can turn out when something goes wrong (I was told to consult YouTube for evidence).

Despite the clockwork operation, I still came away with a burn on this night, having torn into the complimentary pizza from the bakery a bit too quickly.

Turns out we missed another fire call while away in Medicine Hat last week, a brush fire that threatened to grow into the woods, and also was getting into a house. The department took care of it though, saved the house. That's the nature of this volunteer duty -- if you're around, you come help but if you're away, there will probably be enough people to handle it.