In the Jan. 29 edition of the Southern Standard, Nikki Childers had a story about six local volunteer fire departments receiving state funding through the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance (TDCI) and Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO).

The volunteer fire department is something you hope you never have need of, but it certainly is nice to know you can count on them when they are needed. I learned that all-too well last Saturday.

I’ll preface this by saying everything worked out fine and it wasn’t a dramatic incident, but it was just scary enough to make me appreciate even more the willingness of people in our community to help when needed. 

My wife Ashley and I went over to pay a visit to my mom Saturday afternoon. We did my form of cooking, which is to pick up a bucket of KFC, and went to her house. As soon as we walked in the door, Ashley said, “it smells like something’s burning in here.” My mom and I have the same screwed up sinuses so neither of us detected whatever it was Ashley was picking up on. We ate and hung out for a while and, before we left, I went to the garage to take mom’s trash out for her. 

There I found what Ashley had been talking about. I smelled something burning. Pipes coming from mom’s HVAC unit were making an unusual rattling noise. When I touched the pipe, I got a strange sensation of not knowing whether it was really cold or really hot. After a couple of seconds, the results were in when my burned fingertip suggested it was really hot. 

I noticed the insulation on the pipes were the source of the burning smell as the pipes had melted it. I contacted Jason Haston at Hometown Heating and Air to tell him about the issue. My wife, who claims her super powers are an enhanced sense of both smell and paranoia, took things a step further and called her cousin Dylan Blair, a firefighter with the McMinnville Fire Department. Dylan told her North Warren Fire Department Chief Ramie Roberts lived very near my mom so he called him. 

Within minutes, Ramie and his son Spencer showed up to examine the situation. With a cool device that looked like the something the Ghostbusters would carry,  Ramey showed me the pipe was registering around 250 degrees. A problem with the unit caused the unit to overheat and begin to burn the insulation. 

Long story short, Ramie and Spencer shut the HVAC unit down and assured mom everything was fine now and that they were just a call away anytime she needed them for anything. Jason later worked his magic and fixed her unit. 

In what could have been a scary situation, it’s sure nice to know there are people willing to give up time on a Saturday afternoon to provide a bit of reassurance when needed. These folks deserve our support and every bit of grant money they can get. So thanks to Dylan, Ramie, Spencer and all the firefighters of Warren County who are always on call to keep us safe.

Standard Managing Editor Seth Wright can be reached at editor@southernstandard.com