Firemen performed well (1/20/05)

I want to take the time to thank the Portland Fire Department and an unknown sheriff’s deputy for the role they played in a recent fire at my parent’s house at 721 West Arch Street in Portland last Monday night. Being without power for as long as you have, only makes it that much more important to thank these people who stepped out to help their fellow neighbor when everything else was going wrong around them.

Last Monday night, the power company attempted to restore power to my parent’s home on West Arch Street. When the power flowed into the house, the electrical system already damaged by the original outage surge overloaded and burst into flames. An off duty Jay County sheriff’s deputy who lives nearby heard the shouts from the power company to call the fire department and ran to my parent’s house with fire extinguisher in hand to do whatever he could. He was able to break windows to gain access to the house but the smoke was overwhelming at that point.

The fire department arrived with, what I’m told, amazing speed and was able to not only extinguish the fire, but contain the damage to an extremely small area. I also have to applaud the fire department for taking special care as to only focus on the area itself and keeping the damage to a complete minimum with water and debris. They also were noted to carefully remove as many salvageable items from the fire area and move them to an area where they would not be further damaged.

With the utmost of sincerity, I thank you all for the efforts you put forth in the freezing cold to save my parent’s house. The damage is extensive and will displace them for a long period of time. But it could have been much worse if these men and women had not acted in such a professional and heroic manner.

Then, there is the most important thing of all, no one was hurt.

Again, thank you all for your efforts.

Respectfully,

John R. McFarland

Farmersburg

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