To the Editor:

I’d just like to offer an extra “thank you” to the people who turned out to help at the fire in Rensselaerville recently.  It took the efforts of a number of companies in both Albany and Greene Counties to keep all of us safe that day.

Every single person that responded made a big difference, on that call and every other alarm we respond to.  I will personally be forever grateful to that couple with the hot chocolate, and the lady a while later with the soup, and (bless him!) the man who gave me that turkey and cheese sandwich; it was my supper that night.

They may have been members of the fire auxiliary; a number of them came by my post on their way to the firehouse.  I know they went to the fire scene and had hot drinks for the men and women  who were wearing the air packs and fighting the fire.

The ambulance squads turned out too, not just the EMTs for medical help, but the drivers, the attendants, and the folks helping to warm up and dry off the tired firefighters.  There were others there as well, filling air bottles and adjusting packs to be ready for the next volunteer who needed one.

And my friends down below the curve, who spent all their hours getting frozen and drenched so that there would always be enough water to drown the flames.

I’m a volunteer.   I’m not 22, or in superb physical shape (not even close!).  I can’t run up ladders carrying rolls of hose,  but I can help.  And so did those hot-chocolate bearing angels and the Samaritan with the turkey sandwich (sent up by the guys down below on the pumpers; thanks again, guys!).

Somebody made that hot chocolate; could you do that?  Somebody loaded bottles of water and Gatorade onto the ambulance to give to the firefighters; could you do that?  Somebody made spaghetti, or sandwiches, or coffee, or soup, or helped at the fundraiser breakfast; could you do that?

The fire police have to block the roads to keep our responders safe; could you do that?  We have to mop the floors in the firehouse, we have to sell tickets to the chicken dinners;  could you help with any of those things?

It takes us all to keep our community safe, and every one of us has something we can contribute.

Thanks for listening, and thanks for helping.

Phyllis Johnson

Berne
Editor’s note: Phyllis Johnson is a commissioner for the Berne Fire District and a member of the East Berne Fire Company. She is writing of a Jan. 15 fire in the hamlet of Rensselaerville where she directed traffic. (See related story.)