"Investigation" of Open Door at Lebanon Fire and EMS Station 1 Leaves LMTS Thankful for A Nice Evening Ride.

 

STOP, TURN, REVERSE!!!

BREAKING NEWS!!

Tonight an overhead door at the Lebanon Fire and EMS station was left open as your responders rushed off to a motor vehicle accident!!!

 

OH, the HORROR!!

 

It must be a very slow news night for this to have been given top honors for the evening!!
I hope you all had as good a laugh out of this report as I did.

You KNOW I had to RUSH right down and DEMAND of Chief Meehan how he DARED to leave the overhead doors open on the station when he was rushing off to be sure that there was no one injured or dying out on Rt. 202 tonight!! (kidding)

When I arrived at Station 1 on the corner of Depot Road and Upper Cross Road, ALL the doors of the station were wide open and all the lights were on!! The crew were all busy restocking, cleaning, taking off turn out gear and heading in for a discussion with the Chief on how things went at the scene. There were a lot of "them" there, those responders who left the station with reckless abandon, leaving that one overhead door gaping open wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars, since the station is heated to 70* and it was SO cold out tonight, and WORSE, here it was 9:44 pm when I arrived, and EVERY door was open!!!

 

 

By now, I hope you're all giggling, just as I am.

You see, it was 58* at 9:44 pm tonight as I arrived at Station 1. Warm for a late November evening. The crew were hard at work. I'm sure that everyone was a little warm, as they were dashing around in fire pants, suspenders and t-shirts.

I tried to get them all to come and stand in front of the open doors and wave, but they all declined. Yes, I aggravated them a bit, taunting them and trying to get them to come and pose for me. :::sigh::: but they were all a bit nervous about having their photos taken. You know how that is. If their photo is taken, there are no guarantees as to who will use it, or what horrible meme will be created with it. There is no honor amongst photo thieves.

Anyway, there were about 10 of them, all responding to a traffic accident, even though there are only TWO who are scheduled to be at the station at that time of the evening, and we shared a bit of good natured ribbing and a few laughs.

I had to question the Chief on WHY the heat would be set to 70* in the station, considering how warm it is tonight and how warm it's supposed to be during the overnight hours, and the truth is that the heat was NOT set to 70*, but 65*.

But that's neither here nor there.

What's important is that there were 10 responders who answered a call for help in Lebanon tonight. TEN. They left the station in good time and as they left........ a door was left open!!!

OR WAS IT??

I got a good laugh out of the TRUTH.

Chief Meehan, several responders and I went into the Chief's office and rolled back the video tape. YUP the proof is in the video!!

We see on the video, the responders arriving at the station, gearing up, unplugging and starting vehicles and rolling out on the call. Typical call. Nothing strange, out of the ordinary, or discouraging. Each to their vehicle and out the large overhead doors of the station.

Yes, I'm dragging this on, because the TRUTH is so funny that I'm purposefully making you wait for it!!!

So the last vehicle out of the station is the Squad vehicle with 2 responders aboard.

Out of the station they go.........and DOWN starts the big overhead door.

About the time that the door gets a quarter of the way down, the door stops, and raises..........

It never shut all the way.

WHY??

Because there are electronic eyes on the bottoms of the doors.

Electronic eyes are on each of the large overhead doors of the station for protection. If anything penetrates the field of the electronic eye, it causes the door to stop its decent and raise itself back up into the rafters of the station.

So tonight, as the Squad vehicle left the station, there was a water hose, that is coiled and hanging by the door, that somehow had shifted so that one of the coils of hose was blocking the electronic eye.

Your responders would have been out of the station and on their way to the accident scene by the time the door began to go UP again.

So the door was open.

Big Deal.

Since the thermostat in Station 1 was set at 65*F, and the temperature at the time, outdoors, was 58* F, the heating units would not have kicked on until the temperature inside the back room where the thermostat hangs, reached 60* F. Since the room where the thermostat is kept has DOORS separating it from the larger garage bays, that would not have happened for several hours.

:::sigh::::

Not one penny of your taxpayer dollars was wasted. Not even one.

I must say that it was a nice evening for a ride across town to Station 1, and spending time with our responders is always a joy for me. So, no harm, no foul.

THANKFUL for a good laugh, good company, and a nice late evening ride!!

 

 

P.S.........LOVE the green light in support of our nation's veterans!!

WAY TO GO Lebanon Fire and EMS!!

 

 

 

 

 

Maine Department of Agriculture Seeks Public Help in Locating Destructive Insect.

Department seeks public help in locating destructive insect

11/25/2015 08:44 AM EST

 

 

*When moths fly with snow, let the Maine Forest Service know*

AUGUSTA - If you are seeing moth flights this time of year, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's Forest Service would like to know in order to better understand the locations and size of winter moth (Operophthera brumata) populations in Maine. Assistance from the public is being sought to help combat the destructive moth through use of a simple on-line survey to report winter moth sightings.

"The total economic impact of Maine's forest industry is $8 billion with direct and indirect employment of 38,789 workers," said Governor Paul R. LePage. "Fighting invasive insects like the winter moth is important to help protect that sector of our economy; in this case, hardwood trees and agricultural crops such as apples and blueberries. Public involvement will help professionals combat and minimize the destructive potential of this and other invasive species."

Commissioner Walt Whitcomb stressed that filling out a simple online survey set by the Department to report winter moth sightings is very important. "These reports are critical to building the bigger picture of this insect's distribution," said Whitcomb. "A healthy forest is key to Maine's forest economy. Citizen involvement in monitoring invasive pests is important to the future of rural Maine."

The survey can be accessed online at: http://www.maine.gov/dacf/wintermothsurvey . Reports of moth flights can also be made by phone at (207) 287-2431.

**Why Look For Moths in December?**

December may seem like an odd time to set up traps for a defoliating forest pest. However, during the first week of December, DACF staff will set up traps along the coast and inland in southern Maine. Towns in the study region are cooperating by allowing traps to be hung on municipal property. Two homeowners in the most heavily infested areas have volunteered their services for a third year to make nightly counts of the moths trapped in their yards.

Winter in Maine is quite suitable to getting winter moth observations from the public. The moth flies when it is dark-this time of year many people are still out after dark. Even if people are inside and glance out their windows, they may notice if there are small tan moths attracted to lights.

**Winter Moth History**

The winter moth was introduced into North America from Europe in the early part of the last century. It was first seen in Nova Scotia in the 1930s and then in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Oregon and Washington) in the 1970s. Winter moth showed up in eastern Massachusetts in the early 2000s and has since spread westward in MA, into Rhode Island and now coastal Maine from Kittery to Bar Harbor. It was first reported in Maine in significant numbers in December 2011.

The larvae (caterpillars) of winter moth defoliate deciduous trees and shrubs such as oaks, maples, apples and blueberries, in early spring. Heavy defoliation for several consecutive years leads to branch dieback and tree mortality. Winter moth defoliation has contributed to tens of thousands of acres of oak mortality in Massachusetts.

Winter moth defoliation was first recorded in Maine in 2012. This year the annual Maine Forest Service aerial survey picked up moderate to heavy defoliation in the Cumberland County towns of Cape Elizabeth, Chebeague Island, Harpswell, Portland (Peaks Island) and Scarborough with over 10,000 acres mapped. On the ground, light to heavy defoliation could be seen in scattered locations from Kittery to Rockland.

Adults are active from late November to January whenever the temperature is above freezing. Males are small, light brown to tan moths. They are attracted to lights and a chemical released by the females. Adult females are small, gray and look like a mosquito wearing a fur coat. They have reduced wings and are flightless. Females are most commonly found crawling on the trunks of trees. So if you see moths flying in December, let the Maine Forest Service know.