Living in a Fire Station is apparently of national interest

We had a structure fire near our place recently, and due to extremely good luck and favorable circumstances, we were able to save the house.

Yeah I got there first, but I do not deserve full credit, as I could not have stopped the fire completely without all of the help that showed up after I did.  I don't have permission to name names, but let's give it up for the other crews that came out and did the bulk of the work.

The local paper decided, instead of an article on the fire, to do a feature on our newly-discovered status as a live-in family at a fire station:

Volunteer firefighter operates out of rural home in Bear Prairie

I guess no one minds a pat on the back once in a while.  But really, I do love this job, no credit or rewards are required, and I honestly would have been happier to continue to fly under the radar.  Anyway, due to how these things work (when one gets spotted in the media and owes the crew ice cream), this kind of coverage necessitated delivering ice cream enough to cover all shifts at six nearby fire stations across four fire districts.  Cha-ching!

But it gets better.  Or worse, depending on how you see these things.  Firehouse Magazine decided to pick it up:

Rural Wash. Station aka Home Has No Siren, No Pole

And now I hear that the Daily Dispatch also has it linked from their front page.

(Update, now Fire Engineering has picked up the story as well: Volunteer Firefighter Operates Out of Rural WA Home)

I am getting Facebook requests for ice cream from friends all over the country.  Wisely, some of them are noting that ice cream doesn't ship well, and are suggesting certain beers instead.

One of my co-workers turned one of the media photos into this hilarious meme:

Through all this, somehow Engine 17 has escaped mention.  If someone can think of a magic way to turn this media attention into a fundraiser to help fund the restoration 17, that would be terrific.

As one good friend reminded me in the midst of this craziness and my fretting about overexposure, I guess this is my 15 minutes of fame and I should just ride it out and enjoy it.

OK, I'll try.

....  gaaaaaah!!!!

The return of Engine 17

Last year late in the Summer I discovered the front tires were deteriorating, and the breakdown was rapid. Without funds handy to replace the 11R22.5's she had to sit. The cracks got so large that I feared a blowout, so I blocked up her front and deflated the tires.

Seeing a fire engine on blocks is a sad, sad sight. I feel so much guilt every time I look at her!

Then, sometime over the winter, one of my rather young children apparently turned the battery on to play with the pretty lights, and didn't turn it off. By the time I discovered this, the batteries had to have been drained completely dead for weeks. Not sure the batteries will be recoverable or not, that is a little outside of my area of expertise.

However, a friendly benefactor has come forward to assist me with purchasing replacement tires and possibly batteries if needed, and I have a good "in" with a local firefighter who works on large trucks who is willing to bring a service rig up to the house to replace 17's tires on the spot.

Hopefully she'll be back on the road soon so that the tales may continue.

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A couple of years ago I registered at alfowners.com so I could get help from the members there. At some point I requested a change to my username, which was granted, but my login never worked again. The password recovery script just locked up with a database error for the longest time. Now it appears to go through, but email ever arrives. No email address was provided for the admin. New registrations were disabled. I have been locked out of alfowners.com for well over a year. I've dropped some notes on Facebook to try to find out who runs the place to get that fixed. If any of you, my faithful and patient readers, happen to know who that is, please let me know.