Last week's explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, shows the dangers that volunteer firefighters can face each time they go out on a call. A memorial service on Thursday honored the 10 volunteer firefighters and others who died in the blast.
Michael Perry is a bestselling author, a humorist, a radio host and an amateur pig farmer. But of all his experiences, Perry says the single most meaningful thing he has ever done is serve beside his neighbors on the volunteer fire department in New Auburn, Wis., which he wrote about in his memoir "Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time." He joined The Daily Circuit to talk about his experiences as a volunteer first responder and to reflect on the lives lost in Texas:
"If you read about the folks who were serving and who perished, you had grandmothers, you had the town secretary, you had hunters and fishermen, parents and spouses. It's frankly unthinkable. And I'm sure they're working through all those things right now. ...
"One thing that's heartening for me is you're seeing a wide range of people serve. I'm still serving as a first responder for medical and trauma calls as part of the local volunteer fire department, where I live now in Fall Creek, Wis., on a little farm, and we have quite a cross section of folks. We've got everybody from a local snowplow driver to local ER docs who volunteer, men and women ...
"From my own perspective, I would say there's a spectrum of reasons for serving as a volunteer fire fighter and first responder. At the one end of the spectrum is a purely driven community service idea. At the other end of the spectrum there's a lot of fun, flashy, exciting equipment involved. To speak for myself, it's a mix of both of those things.
"For someone like me, a large part of it is an opportunity to serve the community, and I'm serving on behalf of my family. I'm a guy who's on the road a lot. And I know that if something happens when I'm gone, I hope that my neighbors will come to help my family, my children, my spouse. So you're kind of trying to pay it forward too. But then there is that element that it's also at times very exciting, but behind that excitement, as West, Texas, reminds us so horribly, there is real danger."