PARIS – Twenty-four hours and three fires later, Fire Chief Brad Frost said Tuesday afternoon that he was more than ready to go home and get some sleep.

“We’re pretty exhausted,” said Frost as he and a dozen of his crew finished drying hoses and checking equipment they had used in the three fires they fought since early Monday morning.

Frost and nearly three dozen Paris Fire Department volunteer firefighters worked round the clock since 3:59 Monday morning when a call came in that the former Minnie’s Restaurant in Market Square was going down in flames.

They finished at that scene about noon, and then were called out about 9 p.m. to assist Norway Fire Department with a fire that destroyed a downtown rooming house and displaced nine people.

Norway’s firefighters and those from several other nearby towns including Paris, Oxford, West Paris, Waterford and Mechanic Falls were also feeling the strain.

James Tibbetts, Norway’s highway department assistant road foreman, said he was looking for some much needed shut-eye by Tuesday afternoon. Like Frost and his firefighters, Tibbetts and Norway’s volunteers worked the back-to-back blazes.

Tibbetts sent three of five highway department workers, who also serve as firefighters, home early Tuesday to get some sleep, but they wouldn’t get much, he said. An approaching major snowstorm would have them back on the road early today plowing and sanding the town’s 90 miles of roads.

In addition to lack of sleep, about a half dozen firefighters were injured at the Norway fire. Of the three from Norway, one was burned, one fell and injured her back, and another dislocated his shoulder, Tibbetts said. About three or four from other departments suffered high blood pressure. All were treated at Stephens Memorial Hospital and released, he added.

It’s all in a day’s work when firefighters get called out in the middle of the night, and then again and again, but Frost said his crew turns out in force – prepared to do what has to be done.

A total of 27 of his 30 active volunteer firefighters, including three women, responded to the Paris alarm. The same number, along with all the equipment in the fire barn, went back out again for the Norway fire.

The fires took their toll on the three dozen firefighters, who range in age from 18 to 62. With bitter cold conditions, the water from the fire hoses immediately iced up causing treacherous conditions for firefighters.

Frost said firefighters are allowed to use two bottles of oxygen before paramedics, who are stationed at a waiting ambulance at every fire, check their vital signs.

“Several people they wouldn’t let back,” said Frost of those whose blood pressure may have read too high or who had other compromising factors such as strained wrists. One firefighter was sent to the hospital to be checked because of high blood pressure, he said.

“Fatigue will do that,” the chief said of high blood pressure.

While trying to finish up from the Norway fire Tuesday morning, a third call for a structure fire, this time on Deering Street in Paris, came in. The fire, set by a child playing with matches, was contained to a mattress. No one was injured, but the run took its toll on the firefighters.

“Not many are sleeping,” said Frost when asked Tuesday afternoon if anyone had gotten to sleep yet. “Now we’re getting ready for the storm.”

Anywhere from one to two feet of snow is expected to hit the area today.

How fast the volunteers get recharged depends much on today’s snowstorm, Tibbetts agreed.

“If we get 20 inches, I’ll be out all day Wednesday,” he said. “`We don’t have anybody to come in for backup for us. But, we got a three-day holiday weekend coming to sleep, so, that might be what you could call a reward, unless we have another fire or snowstorm.”