The Lakeville Hose Company
by Peter
The Lakeville Fire
Department's 52 members are all volunteers. They miss work, meetings,
family outings, and holiday dinners to put out fires. Their firehouse,
with all its trucks and special equipment, is located in Lakeville.
Our firefighters use radios to find out about an emergency. An average
of 20 to 30 firefighters go to a fire. Sometimes other towns will help
if there is a big fire. The fire department gets about 200 calls a year.
Not all calls are for fires. Some are auto accidents or cats up trees.
About 75 out of 200 calls are false alarms.
Our firefighters, who must be 18 years old or older, take a basic essentials
training course which must be completed within two years. This is where
they learn how to do their jobs safely. Then they have ongoing training
as long as they are members of the department. Junior firefighters can
join the department at age 13. They do not participate in the fire fighting
but they can do other helpful things in an emergency. They can spread
the extra air tanks on the ground when the firefighters are fighting
a fire and need to switch tanks.
Thank you to Mr. Fitting for allowing me to interview him for this article.
He said that people can tour this magnificent fire department. I think
it's a great place with lots of hardworking and dedicated people. We
are lucky to have them here!
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The fire department will put out any fire! |
Updated 01-05-04