Day 673: Three major fires

Steve is still at the third of three major fires today.  Brocton has been hit hard.  The first fire was in the Tri-Parish Church on Main Street and it was totally consumed.  It's at the heart of  their community.  We have regularly visited the church to attend their annual Harvest Dinner.  Our friends the Zirkles have been deeply involved in the church their whole lives and were devastated with its loss.  Steve was out from 12:30 to 4:30 am in freezing cold snow and came home numb and exhausted.

This afternoon we went for a long walk, despite having only four hours of sleep.  When we got to the corner of Barker and Center, an alarm of fire came in for 1 Park Place.  There was an electrical fire in the basement.  I ran home to get the car with all of Steve's gear so he could suit up.  Four departments arrived to assist and fortunately, a tragedy was averted.  Most of the businesses and apartments had smoke damage and residents were displaced.  We drove home quickly and were still able to get to Mary's concert on time.

We got a pizza, sat down to relax and the radio went off again.  This time he was summoned to a house fire in Portland.  Again, the structure was completely destroyed.  Most likely it was due to a wood stove chimney that had never been cleaned.   There are so many sad and displaced people in our region today.  The good news is that no one was injured.