How bad was it Friday night in Wiscasset and Dresden? It was serious, but fortunately not as bad as it might have been.
Over the years it has been in place, the mutual aid system between Lincoln County fire departments has been refined into a well-oiled machine. Look down the list of fire departments supplying mutual aid support for any one event in Lincoln County and the usual suspects appear with reassuring frequency.
Depending on the location and circumstances, for a Damariscotta event, Newcastle, Bristol, Bremen and Nobleboro are likely to lend a hand. In Edgecomb, Wiscasset and Newcastle frequently lend support.
However, when the mutual aid protocol brings in departments as far afield as Topsham and West Bath, which is what happened Friday night, that’s the definition of a bad situation.
Those departments rarely make their appearance in Lincoln County and their support Friday is one indicator of how serious that situation was.
Depending on where you are in the county, it’s not uncommon to see neighboring towns like Windsor, Chelsea, Friendship, Warren and Woolwich come to our aid or Lincoln County departments going to theirs. When the call for help is cast wide enough to bring in towns like Topsham, or Rockland, it’s a sign our extremely capable local responders need every spare body they find.
Friday night was just such a night, with 10 agencies supplying support for structure fires in Wiscasset and Dresden. Friday night only marked the highpoint of an extremely busy weekend for our fire services. There was a fire in Westport Island Friday morning, another in Edgecomb Saturday and one on Monhegan in the wee hours of Monday morning.
True, most of these were of little consequence, comparatively speaking; however even the smallest call relies on someone else taking time out of their life to come to a stranger’s aid.
How many firefighters missed family time at home this weekend, or were dragging at work Monday because they spent all weekend fulfilling their sworn duty to their communities.
We collectively ask a lot of our local responders, and by and large they always deliver.
Yes, these men and women volunteered for their role and in a very real way their sacrifice for the rest of us comes with the territory, but is not something that should be taken for granted. Not this past weekend, not the next, not ever.
Thank you all, once again.
