By Don Wagner
Minneapolis Messenger – November 7, 2013
Submitted by Newz Group Clipping Service – December 2, 2013
If you’ve ever sat around a bonfire at night roasting hot dogs and making s’mores, then you probably know the beauty of fire. However, if you’ve ever seen a prairie fire racing across a tall-grass pasture or felt the searing blast of a house ablaze, you undoubtedly have some inkling of the devastating power of a fire-gone-wild. Controlled fire is one of man’s greatest tools, allowing the advent of modern civilization through the culinary arts and industry (think of a barbeque grill or the flare of a welder’s torch); but when fire escapes that control and spreads wildly through combustible materials, fire is one of mankind’s deadliest enemies.
And that’s where the Bennington Volunteer Fire Department enters the picture. On Friday morning, October 11, I was walking from my classroom in Bennington High School down to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee when I saw the fire trucks in Bulldog Alley. A handful of men and women, 13 in all, some dressed in full firefighting regalia, stood talking in small groups as little kids trooped out the school doors and engaged in exploring the vehicles, observing the specialized tools like gasoline powered saws and long handled axes, and manning a fire hose to try to hit a target across the pavement. It was almost a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting–Americana at its best.
Why were these volunteers standing by the trucks, explaining the equipment and speaking to the youngsters about the dangers of fire? Because these few men and women have made it their business to help protect the rest of us. Unlike most city employees, they are not paid to man the fire station or to present a lesson that might someday save a life or a home; they do it for the love of community and the sanctity of human life.
“Since we have been presenting these programs to the grade-schoolers,” explains 22-year veteran David Carson (1980 BHS graduate), “we’ve seen fires started by kids playing with matches or other materials drop from five or six a year to only an occasional incident.” David Swetson, also a BHS alumnus from 2005, nods his head in agreement. “We all chip in to fund this presentation that includes a bag of fire safety materials for every student. The guys and gals out here today take off from work to do this; it’s money out of our pocket, but it’s important to us, so we do it.”
These volunteers are of the same breed as those brave and heroic souls who, when the twin towers of the World Trade Center were on fire after 9/11 and people were rushing down the stairs to escape the conflagration, were rushing up the stairs to aid and rescue those caught in that hell-hole created by the worst terrorist attack on American soil. These seemingly ordinary men and women in Bennington, KS, USA, serve their country and community by offering their time and talents to protect and educate the young, the naïve, and the complacent. They are ordinary citizens doing what it takes to make our nation great: volunteering for a cause that binds them together into a specialized force for the good and safety of the rest of us.
“In my 22 years on the Bennington Volunteer Fire Department, we’ve responded to hundreds of fires,” says Carson. “Probably 30 or 40 of those were house fires, and at least twice that number were car wrecks. We use the Jaws of Life tool on three or four of those wrecks a year, and often that makes the difference between survival and death.”
“We encourage others to join us,” Carson continues. “Our junior firefighters are high school students like senior Casey Walters. These young people see the importance of what we are doing and have become a vital part of continuing the effectiveness of our volunteer force. We need young people to step up and help out.”
You can help fund the Bennington Volunteer Fire Department by making a donation of time and/or money. Every little bit helps these courageous men and women serve the greater good of our local communities and country. They are the ones who keep our dreams, homes, and lives from going up in smoke.
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