Mars Hill fire illustrates a point
To the editor:
I live in Presque Isle but I work in Mars Hill. On July 24, the people in our office witnessed a tractor-trailer fire across the street in the Shell service station parking lot. This is directly across the street from the Mars Hill Fire Station. Although I didn’t physically go out and measure the distance, it is roughly the length of a football field from the truck to the front door of the fire station. For you who are not aware, Mars Hill has an all-volunteer Fire Department; therefore, nobody was at the Fire Department when this occurred. This truck burned for almost one-half hour before firemen got to the scene to extinguish the blaze. (Believe me, it was quite a blaze).
Although the truck driver lost his pet dog in the fire, it could have been worse. Just think if he’d been in the sleeper having a nap — just the length of a football field from possible safety. Our office is roughly the length of two football fields from the Fire Station. I hope businesses have really good fire insurance, because in the event of a fire, saving anything is pretty slim. They’ll need the money to rebuild, I’m afraid. I heard that some employees in other businesses vacated their offices for fear of an explosion, either from the truck’s gas tanks or the service station tanks.
Now please don’t think that I’m placing any blame on the firefighters. It’s amazing that they got there as fast as they did and put the fire out immediately. It’s just that the response time of a volunteer force is much greater than a fully staffed fire department. This problem exists in any community with an all-volunteer department, not just Mars Hill. They all have jobs the same as you and me. I have no idea how far they had to come to get to Mars Hill.
I’m writing this in regard to the recent City Council meetings here in Presque Isle concerning our own fire department. I believe it was this spring that an article in this newspaper mentioned that one or more of our current city councilors had suggested conducting a survey to see if Presque Isle could be better served by an all-volunteer fire department.
What happened in Mars Hill is a perfect example of why it couldn’t work. The response time is just not sufficient to service a city of close to 10,000 people. Going to an all-volunteer fire department would be a great disservice to the citizens and businesses in the Star City. How do you ever hope to entice new businesses to the city with this kind of thinking? You’d be lucky to keep all the ones you have now.
I guess as citizens of Presque Isle, we had better start attending more of these council meetings when they discuss cutting back on firemen and police officers.
Thanks for listening to the rantings and ravings of a 68-year-old lifetime resident of Presque Isle who desperately doesn’t want to see his city moving backwards.
Terry McEntee
Presque Isle
