Wednesday afternoon I was at the scene of a structure fire. I’ve been on the Enid Fire Department for over 20 years so this was one of literally hundreds that I have been involved with. As Fire Marshal I manage the Fire Prevention Division. I don’t actively participate in extinguishing the fires any more. Normally I’m not called until after the fire is out. Part of my job now is to investigate the cause of the fire hopefully so that we can help prevent similar fires in the future. But when I can, I like to show up along-side the firefighters to watch & take some action photos. Sometimes I get a head-start on the investigation by talking to the occupants about how the fire was discovered, what they were doing at the time, etc. But mostly I just like to watch our firefighters at work.
As house fires go, this was a pretty “big” one. It was near fully involved when our first truck arrived. Lots of smoke; lots of flames, but nothing really new for EFD. Size-up, water supply, ventilation… Everyone has a job and knows how to do it. Training & SOPs kick-in and the wet stuff gets put on the red stuff. Pretty soon the fire is under control and then extinguished. Salvage, overhaul, check for hot spots, roll-up the hoses, re-fill the airpacks and get the trucks ready for the next one. I’ve watched this scene played out many times. It’s always exciting but for us it becomes routine. Just another “day at the office”.
On this particular day however, I was reminded of the human tragedy that’s taking place in the midst of all this. On this particular day I observed a young girl watching her entire world go up in smoke and flames. As I watched her crying frantically, pacing back & forth across the street, I was struck by the pain, loss, and desperation she must be feeling. I had been told that this family had rented and lived in this home for 10 or 12 years. This child couldn’t have been more than about 10. For her, this truly was her entire world. Very likely the only home she’s ever known taken from her in the span of 20 minutes.
Our firefighters did a great job extinguishing the fire. Everyone was out of the house when we arrived. There were no reported injuries. But the home was still a total loss. Not only the house, but nearly everything this family and this child called their own was ruined or destroyed. No insurance, no easy “do overs”. What was a “routine event” for us was a life-changing tragedy for this child and the rest of the family. I realized that I’ve seen so much of this that I’ve become a little desensitized to the human side of this. I’m sure we all do it. We wrap things up, get our gear and our trucks back to the station and congratulate ourselves (…and deservedly so) on a job well done but it doesn’t really end there. For this family we can’t set things right again.
This little girl’s face also reminded me why MY job and part of the Enid Fire Department’s mission is fire prevention. The three-legged stool of fire prevention consists of; 1. fire investigation, 2. inspection & code enforcement and 3. public safety education. We investigate the cause of fires and if we determine they were started intentionally we do our best to prosecute for arson. We inspect buildings to identify and hopefully eliminate potential hazards that might cause a fire. And we try to educate the public about how to prevent fires in their homes and businesses and how to prepare for and escape a fire safely if one does happen.
The tricky thing is that we NEVER know when we’ve really prevented a fire. We only know about the ones we have FAILED to prevent. The measure of our success in fire prevention is really just the increase or decrease in our failure rate. The only way I could have truly “set things right” for this little girl was to have prevented this from happening in the first place. Fire prevention isn’t exciting. It doesn’t take big red trucks with ladders and “wet stuff on the red stuff”. There are no great action photos. But it’s still a very important part of what we do. That little girl’s face should be a reminder for us all.
Ken Helms
Fire Marshal – Enid Fire Department