It is no lie that our local firemen have been in the news a great deal in the past several months. Many of us have opinions on the new firefighters but I wonder how many of us with our opinions have interacted with our firemen firsthand. How many of us have simply formulated opinions based on hearsay or conversation? Perhaps even from newspaper articles.
I had a direct interaction with our local fireman this past week that helped form my judgment of them. Here is the story.
I returned home to my apartment late last Monday night, as I was out celebrating my eight-month anniversary living in the Crowsnest Pass with a gathering of friends. When I returned home, I noticed that my shower’s water faucet was dripping. I decided to ignore the problem until morning as it was already late into the night and I had a full day of work ahead of me the next day.
When I woke up in the early hours of the morning, the water faucet was still dripping. This time I decided to try to fix the problem myself. I turned the handles of the faucet back and forth several times in hopes that I could minimize the water leaking from the faucet. Unfortunately, I made the problem worse. Now the faucet wasn’t only leaking, it was pouring hot water out full blast. Each time I tried to turn off the water, I made the stream of water heavier.
As I was watched the water that was gushing out of the faucet, I couldn’t help to think of all the problems that could result from this. The drain in my shower could start backing up, therefore resulting in a potential flood. The loud sound that the water gushing out of the faucet was making could easily wake up fellow tenants in my building. Finally, with every second that passed, I was wasting unnecessary amounts of water.
I decided it was time to call for help. My first idea was to call my landlord. I realized I left his number at my home in Calgary. I deemed it was too early in the morning to turn to my neighbours and start knocking on doors for my landlord’s phone number. By this time, it was around 4 a.m.
I decided my next best plan was to call 411, directory assistance. I asked the operator for the number of a 24-hour plumber. The operator transferred me to a British Columbia number that resulted in me calling a man’s voicemail.
With each plan that failed, I was loosing water, time and sleep. My composure was quickly replaced with panic. My next plan was to call the man I always call when I get into a panic, my dad.
He suggested that I call 911, as I had already tried every other plan that he could think of.
I called 911, explained to the operator that I could not turn off my shower’s water faucet and it was streaming water on full blast. The operator told me that he would signal firemen over and instructed me to wait downstairs in my apartment lobby. To my earnest relief, it took less than five minutes for a crew of firemen in a pumper truck to arrive outside of my apartment. Upon arriving on scene, they were polite, pleasant and friendly. They must have seen that I was upset, as they quickly calmed my nerves by making conversation and shining light onto the situation.
They fixed the problem in a matter of minutes and showed me what to do if this problem were to happen again. Within ten minutes the problem was solved and the firemen were on their way.
I was more than impressed with my experience with the Crowsnest Pass fire department. From my first hand experience, I can report that their response time was very good, they were professional, polite and respectful, and they solved my problem in a matter of minutes.
Kudos to them.
