
The scenes out of the California wildfires are heartbreaking.
For those who lived through Anderson Creek, Starbuck, Four County and a host of other named massive Kansas wildfires in the past decade, the photos and video are sadly familiar: a combination of wind and dry kindling conditions that erupt into fast-moving flames that gobble up acres like a monster, reducing everything in its path to ashes and melted metals without regard to socioeconomic status or how many awards and accolades are on the mantle.
You, my friends who’ve been there, know better than some the fear, uncertainty, anger and sorrow that these Californian neighbors are experiencing right now.
I’ve spoken to some of you across Kansas during and after these wildfire events, hoping that by sharing your story, attention is brought to the region and your recovery needs. Other stories are meant to educate others to prepare their homes and farms to be more disaster-proof, to take a lesson from the tragedy.
Most importantly, telling those stories puts faces to the devastation. It’s not just acres and structures and a dollar amount. It’s the family home, the baby album, the wedding dress and the year’s calving records lost. It’s the tales of neighbors helping neighbors and volunteers from other states coming to the aid of people in need.
Mr. Rogers told us as kids that in times of trouble, look to the helpers. We’ve certainly seen how our rural fire departments step up to be helpers at times like these. I’ve got a special spot in my heart for those who volunteer in our rural fire departments, who are rural emergency medical technicians and first responders. The ones who carry their emergency radios to children’s plays and who carry gear in their pickups just in case.
They volunteer to serve their neighbors and strangers in the darkest hours of need, with no pay, and carry the burden of the tragedies they’ve seen.
If we take a lesson out of the California fires, and those previous fire events closer to home, let it be that we need more people to raise their hands and volunteer to serve their neighbors as emergency responders. And that those of us who can’t volunteer at the very least support them when we can.
In our communities, that’s being an employer that supports its employees who volunteer on rural fire departments with flexible scheduling so that they can train and respond to emergencies during the workweek if they need it. One of the top reasons given for reduced volunteer numbers in our rural departments is that it interferes with work schedules.
It’s having a conversation with young people about the opportunities that volunteer firefighting or emergency response provides to them, and encouraging them to join volunteer departments when they are of age. It’s going to their public education events and learning CPR, basic first aid skills or simple home defense so that we can be prepared.
Supporting our volunteer crews means showing up to the chili suppers, the pancake feeds and the dozens of other fundraisers they conduct throughout the year and kicking a little more into the boot. It’s helping them write grant proposals for upgrading equipment and being a voice on their behalf on the county commission when the budget is discussed.
Not everyone will need a volunteer firefighter in their lifetime. Right now, it’s our neighbors in California. Next month or the month after, it might be Kansas again. That’s the nature of natural disasters — you don’t get to pick where they start and how long they last.
All we can do is support the ones who’ll be there when we need them the most, every day of the year.
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