Admiration for and Thanks to Fire Departments

Letter to the Editor

14 January 2013

On the evening of Sunday, the 5th of January 2014, Log Creek Timber Company suffered a fire in our shop facilities. We want to express our most sincere appreciation to the firefighters of the Edgefield, Johnston, and Trenton Fire Departments for their efforts that night. While all fires present a danger to life and property, a fire of this type can be especially dangerous due to the contents of a working shop. The firefighters arriving early in the operation faced a daunting task and never hesitated to attack the fire with every weapon in their arsenal. We were on-scene as they arrived and to see them basically walk into an inferno is, to most of us, incomprehensible.

We have, over the course of the last week, been working to recover. Part of that process has been to secure fire reports, both the CAD from dispatch and the actual report from the Edgefield FD. Examination reveals something else that is pretty amazing, the response time between the initial 9-1-1 call and their having a truck on the road in response. While we know that all the volunteer fire departments in our county are dedicated and work to protect us in our worst times, to see a response time of 2 minutes and 10 seconds is very impressive. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that they are truly volunteers and do not live at the station.

We want to make sure that everyone knows what a wonderful job all the firefighters did here at Log Creek that night. This was a particularly nasty fire call due to the contents and fire load and they stopped the fire before it could destroy everything. We all owe a debt of gratitude to those men and women who put their lives and health on the line for us every time the tones drop to send them on yet another call.

With sincere thanks and the greatest admiration,

Reg Williams   Martha Sanders  Tim Williams