Ward Six Fire Dept would like to say thank you to all of our Ward Six and CERTC Firefighters who have worked 20+ hour days since last Tuesday, preparing for the storm, staying and riding it out, then starting at 6:00am last Thursday morning clearing roads so that our emergency vehicles, as well as other vehicles, could travel the roadways safely. The complete and utter devastation to our communities was heartbreaking to see as we cut our way down the roadways that morning. Our hearts are broken for so many in our area who have lost everything they own.
We have the best group of guys and gals and we would put them up against anyone, anytime. They are all doing this for free, because they love their community, even while some of them have lost their homes.
Side note: We still have 4 roads in our fire district that we are unable to clear at all due to huge trees down and heavy equipment being needed. Our chainsaws just aren’t enough. If anyone has any leads on someone who would want to help us with that, please let us know. It will take large trackhoes or large dozers in order to do it.
Thank you from all of us at Ward Six Fire Dept to the firefighters and road clearing crews from all over the state and other states who have been here helping us since last Friday. I have never seen more hard working people in my life. They have worked daylight until dark clearing debris from our roads and are still helping us cover many, many emergency calls during the past 6 days. We consider them our forever family, even after knowing them for only a few days.
Thank you to the people and companies who have generously brought all kinds of needed items to help us get thru these long, hot days.
Thank you Jett Ingalls for coming to our rescue with your heavy equipment to get our fire equipment out of our destroyed station. And thank you to the other volunteer who came with a crane and lifted the station off of our 2 fire trucks so we could remove them.
Thank you to every person and group who has fixed meals for our firefighters and teams.
Thank you to Ashley Clifton for cooking the first 2 days and to Juanita Perkins for taking over the cooking duties when Ashley had to leave. Cooking and feeding 40 of us every morning before we go out on our missions and covering the cooking duties for other meals when we didn’t have people donating prepared meals to us has not been an easy task at all. We appreciate our cooks!
Thank you to Tigerland (Jack and Ronnie and the crew) in DeQuincy for your constant support of our community and our fire dept. We love and appreciate you! Without you, our fire trucks would have sat with empty fuel tanks, unable to respond or help our citizens.
Thank you to Sam’s Tire for coming to fix numerous flats and for finding us some generator oil on the spur of the moment.
Thank you to Water District 7 for your extremely hard work trying to restore water to the district. The 22 hour days y’all are putting in reflects just how committed you all are to getting water back on to every home and fire hydrant in your water district. We are honored to work hand in hand with your guys and we appreciate everything y’all are doing to try to get the system back up and running, (even though one of them has a home that was destroyed). These guys have been cursed at while working in the middle of the night, barely able to stand up because they were/are so exhausted and they are still out there working tonight. We at Ward 6 Fire Dept recognize your dedication to the community and we appreciate you so much.
We are so blessed and grateful to have such a awesome group of people living in, serving and protecting this community.
Thank you to our community for your support. Without you backing us up, we would not exist. No, we aren’t perfect, but we try our very best to do the right thing, not just sometimes, but all the time. We’ve had our hiccups, just like any other group has, but it’s worked out and we have kept pushing forward.
We have a ton of station rebuilding, truck repairs and other issues to fix, and with God’s help, our community’s help and the help of all of our volunteers, we will get thru this and be better than ever.
Thank you all again from the depth of our hearts. We are still working hard and will continue working as hard as we can until this trying time is behind us.