“A fully involved structure fire is extremely serious business,” One firefighter quoted after last Saturday’s structure fire in Standish, Maine.
A lot of people have said that the Firefighters, EMTs and also the police department were not fast enough to put the fire out. For those of you that may or may not be familiar with Standish, Angelwood Drive is off from the Saco Road, (which is in the rural part of Standish) this part of the town is extremely difficult to get water to in such a crisis.
“I am very appalled that everyone is willingly pointing fingers at the people that constantly drop everything they are doing to risk their lives for people. It is so easy to blame someone else and to point fingers at whose fault it is. Until the facts from the Fire Marshal’s Office comes in, then we will not know. I am just horrified that people in our community will actually blame our men and women who serve our community for not being fast enough. Standish does not have a fulltime Fire Department unlike several surrounding towns closer to the cities including Westbrook, Portland and even South Portland. We are a growing community, I understand that completely, but these people are on a paid volunteer fire department except the chief and live-in students. The rest of the firefighters go home to their own beds which has to be calculated in to their arrival time.” One town’s person said after hearing about the news that was reported.
When asked if ‘feeling safe in Standish’ was an issue she replied the following:
“I don’t feel any safer in any other town. I know many of the fine men and women who put their lives on the line for the people of Standish and surrounding towns. The firefighters are all incredibly nice and do their jobs in a mannerly fashion. The EMTs and Paramedics are comforting when you need a ride in the rescue. This is a community where everyone pitches in to help one another. I am disgusted by the fact that someone would actually say otherwise.”
The questions went spiraling on from there as the heat of the debate questions whether or not Standish Fire Department could have been quicker to respond to the structure fire or not. A question was asked to the woman asking if she was still pleased with the Chief and the fire department after watching the news. The one replied; “If a person is so quick to run their mouth, then why are they reporters and not on the truck?”
A lot of different factors resulted into the loss of the house which included lack of water, which ended up having mutual aid from ten different towns. Were the firefighters at fault for being too slow? Personally, after talking to this woman I began to believe that we don’t give enough credit to the firefighters for even showing up. After thirty minutes I believe that what they go through in a day’s work where chimney collapsing, second floors collapsing and finding people in hot, dark and smoke thick enough you can barely see your hand in front of your face is more than any of us encounter in a life time. However the woman also made us realize that they are there and so easy to blame for not showing up fast enough to the fact that someone else would have done it a different way. The truth of the matter is the fact, ‘If you were really going to do it that way, then why are you not in charge.’ It also made me realize that today I honestly should go up tour public workers and thank them for what they do, especially after everything they do for us and the National News reporting the death rate of Firefighters, EMTs and police have risen these past years. They are the ones that keep us safe, why are we making negative images of it?
(The woman’s identity was not disclosed for private matters. She has lived in Standish for twelve years, with her family.)
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