One day back in the early ’50s, delivering newspapers to a sub-fire station, I came upon a tragic scene. There, in the second bay, was the famous open-cab ladder truck, badly damaged from an unfortunate collision with an Auburn pumper. There were several fatalities in that accident, including an Auburn police officer desperately trying to stop the oncoming collision.

Incidents such as those were never forgotten, and were most likely instrumental for me in joining a volunteer fire department.

Today, looking back at that terrible accident, I can’t help but realize the amount of pressure that was put on the fire chiefs from Lewiston and Auburn, what with the loss of several firefighters, “brothers” in our organization, and the final task in delivering the sad news to the families involved.

I don’t envy fire chiefs, for they have sacrificed unlimited time away from their families in order to upgrade their own departments. A lot goes on behind the scene for a fire chief – keeping up with the current mandatory training, looking after the safety of his firefighters, negotiating annual budgets and, on many occasions, put on the “carpet” by city or town politicians.

I am proud to be in the shadow of a special fire chief, a cousin, Michel Lajoie, and highly respect him for all the accomplishments achieved in the past 12 years.

Finally, to all fire chiefs, active and retired, I raise my helmet and honor their stand.

Roland Lajoie, Turner