Big Sandy Volunteer Fire Department held their Annual Chili Feed October 7.
This is National Fire Prevention Week and we are celebrating it in "The Mountaineer" this issue.
Fire prevention goes back a long, long way with early day volunteer firemen going around in wagons that would hold many gallons of water and that were manned by four or six horses.
Needless to say that not a lot of fires were put out unless the fire was right next to the fire department. If those old fire wagons had to go a mile, chances were the fire would have consumed whatever building they were trying to get put out.
Then many cities started demanding that fire services be a part of what cities did and taxes were charged for those services. A fire department was formed, usually under the watchful eye of the mayor of the town, better equipment was purchased and fires started getting put out instead of just ending up burned up buildings.
As time went on ambulance services got hooked to fire departments and much later first responders were under the hat of the fire department as well as anything from daring mountain rescues to rescues in area lakes or rivers.
In a few towns and cities, fire departments have never been connected to the cities in which they do their work.
Big Sandy is one such city. And yet, if you were at the chili feed last Friday night, you were seeing volunteerism at its best in small town America.
That is what fire prevention is all about. People working hard to keep their towns safe all year long.
And, in some very unusual circumstances do it in such a way as to not ever charge the citizens a nickel in taxes.
That is extraordinary!
Consider this.
If you go to the fire department you will see that they have a grand building to hold what their building needs to hold. Not only that but you will see that the fire department is much more than a fire department these days. They are on call for ambulance service both to Havre and Great Falls, they might be called to help in a daring rescue in the Missouri River and they are always on call for that lightning strike that has set several haystacks on fire.
Not only is there a great fire department, but there is training going on all the time to keep up with the latest efforts in saving lives.
This last week was the 61st Chili Feed. It is for 61 years the way the fire department has gotten money to provide all the services they provide to northern Chouteau County.
Of course, a good part of having such a successful fire organization is because of fire chief Larry Ophus and his father Lawrence Ophus before him.
Without them this fire department would not look the same at all.
So, with it being National Fire Prevention Week, it is a perfect time to say thanks to the firemen and their leaders Larry and Lawrence before him and even more important all those Big Sandy residents who go to the Chili Feed every year and keep this fire department state of the art to say the least!
