By: Barb and Lou Lanwermeyer
This letter is an overdue public acknowledgment that the volunteer fire units in Clay County — and surrounding areas — deserve our admiration and thanks for their public service.
Even when there are no emergencies to call them, these fellow citizens devote many hours from their personal schedules to train for their unpaid work, maintain their equipment and be ready to respond if and when the call comes. This goes on continually — week after week — all year long.
As a result, they are prepared to protect people in need and property in jeopardy. We recently had to call on them for both of these reasons — a fire at our residence. We were fortunate that multiple units were able to respond quickly, combine their personnel and equipment and avoid what would otherwise been a total loss of our home. We are very grateful to have this level of protection from our volunteer forces. We thank them and urge everyone in the area to do likewise, fire or not.