Fire Chief’s are Resilient

Resilience, is being able to recover from something, or being able to be calm in a situation where there’s chaos. Many people can be resilient, some people have more opportunities that others to be resilient. One person that I can really think of that is resilient very often is my grandfather. He wears many hats, husband, dad, grandfather, head of maintenance at two schools, and fire chief. Grampy has many chances to be a leader and role model in other places than in the ones I have talked about.

Growing up a firefighter’s daughter, and fire chief’s granddaughter, I have a lot of stories from being taken to fire calls. One that I only remember vaguely, I only got to see it briefly because I was so young. There was a big structure fire on the Hallowell road in Litchfield, the flames were leaping at least 10 feet above the roof of the house. You could see the smoke from the fire at my house, there were people everywhere, firetrucks were arriving on scene, and it was the epitome of chaos. This fire was so bad, that is melted a couple of ladders. Yet, Grampy somehow managed to stay calm throughout it all, being the chief he was the center of it all the chaos.He is able to stay calm because he assesses the situation, just like Loie does in the story. I remember seeing him in his gear, directing all of his firefighters, and instructing people where the road needed to be blocked off. There were also by standers, that needed tending to, so they wouldn’t get in the way. The house may not have been able to be saved because when crews arrived on scene, the house was already too far gone, but Grampy remained calm through it all.

Another fire I remember very well, and is my favorite one, was another structure fire. I got off the bus at the school that Grampy works at because I wanted to go home with him that day, when his tone went off. The tone went off letting us know that it was structure fire and where it was, so off we went to the fire. When we got there, we were the only one who responded, the smoke was rising off the roof, but Grampy needed to take action. So, Grampy radioed into dispatch and told them, he couldn’t be at the radio, and that I was going to be in charge of the radio until more people came. He needed to let dispatch know that it wouldn’t be him because I didn’t know all of the radio jargon. So, while he assessed, he came back to the truck and called for more people to come and help. Eventually Sabattus Fire Department showed up, and a couple Litchfield firefighters came as well. So, a couple firefighters went into the house because there was a dog inside, and after a couple minutes they came out with the dog unharmed. It ended up not being a structure fire, but some clothes had caught on fire in the dryer, causing a lot of smoke damage to the house. So they put the fire out, and then Grampy and I went home. Although this fire wasn’t as much as a chaotic scene as the previous fire, there was still chaos. It was chaotic because there was not many people who responded at first, so Grampy found a solution to the problem by putting me in charge of the radio, and calling for back up.

Grampy is very resilient because he is put in chaotic situations all of the time, yet he is able to stay calm and keep things organized.