At Fire Station 15, a red bucket with the word “fire” painted in white letters is kept with as much affection and pride as a symbolic heirloom.
When settlers built the first frontier towns, they kept a fire bucket in every house and shop, Lynnwood Fire Chief Gary Olson said. If a building started to burn, people filled the fire buckets with water and attacked the fire as a team. People were keenly aware that if the fire burned down one house, it could spread and burn down the whole town.
“It’s a great tradition,” Olson said. “That’s how it started. The community working together to save the community.”
The tradition hasn’t changed. Firefighters, paramedics and fire marshals use teamwork, endurance and tools to fight all kinds of disasters.
The Lynnwood Fire Department responds to about 6,000 calls for service each year. Of those calls, three out of four are for a medical emergency, such as a heart attack, stroke or car crash.
If you get trapped anywhere, you will probably be rescued by a firefighter, who is a trained rescue technician. Firefighters rescue people who get trapped inside a collapsed building after an earthquake, on a steep slope after a climbing accident or in collapsed dirt trenches at construction sites.
And there are the fires: electrical fires, chemical fires, brush fires, car fires and house fires.
Today’s firefighters have to be ready for it all, Olson said. It takes a lot of time, dedication, knowledge and the right tools to do the job.
“We are a modern organization that responds no matter what the situation,” the chief said.
The gear has changed significantly over the decades. Instead of fire buckets, the department uses fire engines that can pump about 2,000 gallons of water per minute. A ladder truck, one of three in South Snohomish County, features a 100-foot-tall ladder from which water can be sprayed down on a fire or people saved from tall buildings. Price tag: $750,000.
Fire Station 15 also houses a hazardous-materials response unit in a long white van. Inside the van, the department keeps equipment that can detect and identify about 30,000 different chemicals or substances, whether its a chemical spill or terrorist attack. The technicians who man the vehicle and the equipment can be dispatched to anywhere in Snohomish County or beyond if necessary.
“This is the equipment that belongs to you,” Olson said.
Protective clothing, known as bunker gear, is critical to protect firefighters from smoke, heat and whatever toxins a fire unleashes, said assistant police chief Greg Macke. The protective clothing, oxygen tanks and respirator for a single person alone weigh about 100 pounds, Macke said.
“The worst fire we have to fight on a regular basis is a garage fire — paints, acids, fertilizers,” the chief said. “If we are not buttoned up and protected at all times, we can get hurt.”
The best tool remains people — even the average citizen. People can do countless things to cope with a disaster or prevent it before it even happens, said public education officer Marybeth O’Leary. The fire department teaches classes and distributes information about public safety.
“We would really like it if nobody got hurt,” O’Leary said. “It (The Fire Department) is a resource we don’t want to use. We are trying to put ourselves out of business.”
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