A Good Man

Yesterday, I finally received a return phone call from a man I called a few days back.  The man apologized for not returning my call.  He said he and other members of his volunteer fire department had suddenly been deployed to defend some structures threatened by the Alice Creek fire.

I assured him he did not need to apologize for that.  Far from it.

Good work, that.

He went on to tell me that he had witnessed when the fire underwent a 5,000 acre, wind-driven blowup.  The fire positively raced across open grasslands and caused trees to explode like firecrackers when it reached them.

The Alice Creek fire is the wildfire nearest my cabin.  Too near.  From what I see on the latest incident maps, one arm of the fire has reached to within eight miles of my cabin.  As of yesterday, the fire has ripped through a bit over 29,000 acres of forest and grassland.  Structures have been lost.

After we talked about the fires a bit more and spoke about the business prompting my initial call, I thanked him for standing against the fire.  “I really appreciate what everyone up there is doing,” I told him.  “Means a great deal to me.  Do you get paid for your time?”

“We could get paid,” he answered.  “It’s not much.  The money comes from FEMA.  All the guys on my crew talked.  We figured, with what’s going on in with the hurricanes in Florida and Texas, they didn’t need to worry about us.  None of us asked to be paid.  We just want to help.”

I am something of a softie.  I almost teared-up when he told me his crew turned down money.  Okay, maybe I did tear-up a bit.

Makes me proud to know such a good man.

Makes me proud of Montana. 

We might be on fire, but we are not burning up.

Photos of Alice Creek Fire: InciWeb

--Mitchell Hegman