My town, up in flames...

June 18, 2007

On Monday, June 18th, a community has been changed forever. 3 different companies were called around 7pm to a Sofa Super Store in West Ashley, South Carolina. Of the many men that bravely fought this above pictured blaze, 9 of them did not make it out.

This happened in my area. These men were people in a newly made group of friends. One of our friends pictured above (second from the right bending over with the airtank on his back) was lucky enough to make it out with only an injury to his hand. His name is Marques Bush. He is Jayk's luitenant at the company he just started with. He works full time at St. Andrew's firehouse and is a volunteer with Jayk at Caromi. St. Andrews was one of the companies fighting this particular blaze.

Luckily, Marques was not in the building though he was gearing up to go in when glass from a window he had to shatter badly cut his hand. His injury prevented him from going in to look for at least 5 guys that he was made aware of at that time. He had surgery on his hand Tuesday and is now recovering physically, fine. Mentally, him, along with many other firefighters and friends are devestated. There are flags at half mass everywhere and billboards saying how much these guys will be missed.

When a tragedy happens and you are far removed from it and watching from a distance, you may have a moment of sorrow and think, "Oh those poor families, friends, people, etc.." Now it has hit so close to home, though Jayk was not there, my friends and theirs were at this fire. I will honestly say even when 9/11 happened, I felt that generalized sorrow. I didn't feel directly effected.

Now that Jayk will be starting his 1152 (firefighter's certification training) classes to be certified and able to go IN to burning buildings, and for the simple fact some of our friends and "extended" friends were there, I could not help but get that sick feeling in my stomach when Marques's wife Kelly called me from the fire that night at 11 pm to let me know that Marques had been injured but he was ok, and that at that time 5 guys were missing. Four of them we close friends of theirs. We had just met one of their wives the previous Saturday. This is what's left of the building they got trapped in:

I can't help but write about it, because it is all I have been hearing everywhere I go. So many people sent me texts and called to see if Jayk had been there and to find out if he was all right. It's just so overwhelming. The loss of these nine men from our local area has wrecked the community. It has been a really bad year for many public service men and women in our area, and I don't think that they are recognized nearly as much as they should; not just in our area but for all public service people nationwide.

It's pretty sad that it takes 9 men dying for people to pay attention to what these men and women do for our country everyday. It's pretty sad that this has to happen for people to recognize they put their lives on the line (much like our soldiers) every day just to keep the rest of us safe and alive. So next time you see a firetruck, ambulance, or a squad car go racing past you on the road sirens blaring, make sure you take a moment to not only get out of the way, but silently thank them for what they do everyday. You never know when it will be you or yours they're saving!

To the 9 local heroes and my new humongous extended family as one of the guys at the firehouse put it, I would like to say thank you for everything you do!