JOSHUA WEBSTER
I just came down one day and asked a couple of firefighters what
was going on and really just how I can become part of it and help
my community out, and kind of went from there. One of the ones
that I went to was a car accident that was down toward Whipple
Hollow Road where the woman — another lady, she fell asleep and
crashed into the car. There was blood rolling down the driver’s face,
and the daughter was totally distraught, and one of the big things I
felt like our training really came in handy with, is that these people
are in such shock that they don’t realize what’s going on. And the
woman got out of her car — the girl got out of her car and said,
“What just happened? Was I in an accident? One of the big things
that we actually trained about that week was not just releasing them
until you release them to someone else. So I walked her over to the
ambulance real slow. She was on the phone with her father, and that
was like — can you imagine being the father on the other side saying,
“Hey, what’s going on?” And she had no idea what was going on. He
didn’t, and she didn’t. We got the mother out safely, and everybody
recovered real well. That was a good feeling, that you were able to
help someone like that and make sure that they kind of got through
the process with ease. Dedication and time. I really feel like, some of
the guys with families, myself included, you get that call, but you’re
stuck home with the kids. You really want to help out, but at the
same time you’ve got to make time for it. So anybody who’s going
into it, I just say make sure you really have that time for dedication
to be able to make it to many calls. Everybody’s busy all the time, so
if you get one or two, you never know, it’s not going to be a full crew
every time. You’re really part of a system.
TOM LACZ, 2ND ASSISTANT CHIEF
I’ve been a member since March of ’87.
The reason I got on was because back
then I was 20 years old, I was just gung-
ho, and I was looking for something fun
to do and thought the fire department
was it. I’ve been here ever since. Once I
got involved in the fire department, it was
more of a camaraderie. It was something
interesting to do every night. Probably
the Lindholm fire was probably one of
the ones. I was young. We got there, and
there was a lot of fire, ammunition going
off, firetrucks everywhere. It’s probably
one of the fires that sets deepest in my
mind of all my fires. We’ve had a lot of
good fires in all the 31 years that I’ve been
here. Fortunately, everybody’s come out
safe, and I guess that’s what it’s all about
— coming home safe. I believe that fear
is something that you naturally overcome
as you’re trained to handle different types
of fires that you’re in, and you realize that
you’re in control and not the fire.
RUTLAND HERALD HOMETOWN HEROES OCTOBER 2018 • 7