PEA RIDGE — There was a fire at a residence on Sugar Creek Road last week.
You probably saw it on the television news or in the daily newspaper.
Or there might even be something in this newspaper concerning the story. Those of us who contribute articles from time to time do not know what is being covered elsewhere in the paper.
A fire, or any emergency for that matter, is always a tragic event.
In this case the loss of property, not lives, was the extent of the loss.
But, behind every tragedy there are some lessons to be shared and the concern for the family has been expressed in too many ways to cover in this space.
There was, however, something in this unfortunate circumstance in which our Pea Ridge community can take pride. There is an Emergency Service District that encompasses the city of Pea Ridge and surrounding area which is west of Garfield, north of Avoca and Little Flock and east of Bentonville.
Each of those cities is part of a district with a defined area of responsibility much like Pea Ridge.
One of the major differences is the fact that about five years ago the Pea Ridge Fire Department and ambulance service started the practice of manning the fire station during the day Monday through Friday with two fulltime trained persons on duty rather than being a strictly “volunteer” department. This allows personnel on duty during these hours to arrive at the scene of any tragedy much more quickly than if they went from their homes or some other location to the fire station and took the appropriate emergency vehicle - ambulance or fire truck - to the point of need. The practice of a crew Monday through Friday during the day was expanded to include the weekends about ayear ago.
Our family has been blessed to have the ambulance and crew at our home in mere minutes when needed and when you are feeling the stress of an emergency, speed is of the essence. This was true also at the fireon Sugar Creek Road.
I don’t know what time the call was made to 911 reporting the fire.
The house is located in the Avoca Fire Department area, but Avoca, NEBCO (Garfield), Little Flock and Pea Ridge apparently were all contacted. The Pea Ridge crew of three (Captain John Bobholz and firefighters Brandon Jones and Justin Collins) was at the Pea Ridge Elementary School teaching the children about emergency services when they got the call.
By being on duty, they were able to get to the station, “gear up” and be first at the scene to fight the fire. Even though Avoca is closer to this fire’s location (about one mile), they are strictly volunteer and unless someone is at the station doing some type of station work, they must come to the Avoca fire station, gear up and go to the scene.
This is in no way to shortchange the efforts of Avoca, but I think we need to applaud the hometown folks who have had the forethought to make full-time services available from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a seek in our city. It takes your fire dues and my fire duesand the leadership of the fire department and the leadership of the City of Pea Ridge to make this possible.
Someday, maybe in the not too distant future, the city will be able to man the station 24/7 and have ambulance and fire fighting capabilities within minutes when they matter most.
For reasons that are not important to this article, I was able to witness this event firsthand. There was injury, but no fatalities. I lost track of the number of vehicles that responded to the fire. What I will not forget, probably never forget, is how important a few minutes can be in an emergency and my thanks go out to every man and woman who was involved in trying to help that day. Theynot only served the family in time of crisis, but they impressed me with their skill and caring.
This is just to say “thank you guys, for a job welldone.”◊◊◊
Editor’s note: Leo Lynch, a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at prtnews@ nwaonline.com.
Opinion, Pages 2 on 05/11/2011