Dresden Fire and Rescue

On Sunday, April 26, 2014, the Dresden Volunteer Fire Department was awarded the Community Service Award for Dresden by the members of Enterprise Grange #48 of Richmond.  This award is given each year by the Grange to a special person or organization that is chosen from nominees that have been presented to them.  They choose one for Richmond and one for Dresden.  As many towns depend so much on volunteers who are more than willing and ready to take on the many challenges, duties and responsibilities to protect their families, neighbors and communities, we were very pleased that our department was chosen for this year’s award.  Although many of the members were engaged in other activities on that day, we were very well represented by those in attendance.  The Grange members took the time to make each member a certificate with their name, framed a certificate for the department to hang on the station wall and had a wonderful buffet of finger foods, drinks and desserts.  Along with all that, they paid a very special tribute to our members.  One of the tributes was the reading of the following of which has no author to give credit:

FIREFIGHTER’S GLOVES

A Firefighter’s Gloves hold many things – from elderly arms to a kid’s broken swing.                    From the hands they shake and the backs they pat, to the tiny claw marks of another treed cat. At 2 a.m. they are filled with chrome from the DWI who was on her way home and the equipment they use to roll back the dash from the family of six she involved in the crash.

The brush rakes in Spring, wear the palms out when the wind does a “90” to fill them with doubt, the thumb of the gloves wipes the sweat from the brow of the face of a firefighter who mutters “What now?”

They hold inch and three quarters flowing one twenty five so the ones going in, come back out alive.  When the regulator goes, then there isn’t too much, but the bypass valve they eagerly clutch.  The rescue equipment, the ropes, the C-collars; the lives they saved never measured in dollars, are the obvious things firefighters’ gloves hold, or, so that is what I’ve been always told.

But there are other things Firefighters’ Gloves touch – those are the things we all need so much.  They hold back the rage on that 3 a.m. call; they hold in the fear when you’re lost in a hall; they hold back the pity, agony, sorrow; they hold in the desire to “Do it tomorrow”.

A glove’s just a glove till it’s on firefighters, who work all day long just to pull an all-nighter.  And into the fray they charge without fear at the sound of a “Help” they think that they hear.

When firefighter’s hands go into the glove, it’s a firefighter who always fills it with love.  Sometimes the sorrow is too much to bear and it seeps the glove and burns deep “in there”.  Off come the gloves when the call is done and into the pocket until the next call.

The hands become lonely and cold for a bit and shake just thinking of it.

And they sit there so red-eyed with their gloves in their coats, the tears come so fast that the furniture floats.  They’re not so brave now; their hands they can’t hide.  I guess it just means they are human inside.  And though some are paid and others are not, the gloves feel the same when it’s cold or it’s hot, to someone you’re helping to just get along.  When you fill them with love, you always feel strong.

And so when I go on my final big ride, I hope to have my gloves by my side, to show to St. Peter at the heavenly gate ’cause as everyone knows, firefighters don’t wait.

PRAISE GOD FOR FIREFIGHTERS!