It’s a Burger To Go

Each year the BFD would host an awards dinner. We would take all of the engines out of the main bay at Station 1, sweep, mop, set up tables and chairs and throw ourselves a party. This was the one and only time when alcohol was available at the firehouse, as wine was served that night. You might think it’s stupid for the one and only fire department in town to start drinking together but it wasn’t really that way. There was always about 15 or 20 men who didn’t drink at any time and this was no exception. Addtionally there were always designated firemen who were not allowed to leave the city limits. We called this “on standby” and this assignment rotated every 2 weeks. These 5 men had to stay at the firehouse even if the rest of us left the city limits. The logic being that we needed to be able to respond with a full engine company to the city limits at any given time. If you were designated as “on standby” during this dinner you also couldn’t drink. So, out of 55 firemen there were nearly half there that didn’t drink wine that night. Now that I have managed to digress a bit, I’ll continue.

This special awards dinner was the culminating night of the year for everyone. Awards and promotions were given and we wanted to honor each other and do so in front of our families that supported us throughout the year. I remember that every year as the event approached, Phil Moxley, the fire chief would always remind us to bring our families and guests in this manner, “Bring your wife or your girlfriend, but please don’t bring both. We don’t need that kind of mess that night”.

Here is another digression that I must take. At this dinner there were nearly 100 -120 people. Some had attended the dinner for years, others were new to the department or had just recently married or begun dating a fireman, but it was a huge crowd. Every year, Stan Lloyd, the Assistant Fire Chief would get up and without notes introduce everyone in attendance. He would simply go down the tables and say “This is Steve Perkins and his wife Melodie, next to them is Ray Walker and his date, Susan. Across from them is longtime friend of the fire department and widow of…..”, until everyone in that room was introduced. Occasionally he’d have to pause to remember a name of someone he had just met that night, but he’d do an amazing job. At the end there would be an applause. It was awesome.

Anyway, because the dinner was hosted by the members, we created a committee of about 5 guys to plan and present the awards, etc. For many years I was on that committee and enjoyed taking the time to plan and prepare. This required about 5 or 6 meetings in the months just proceeding the dinner. One Tuesday night I had barely made it home from work in time for the meeting so I simply picked up a couple of burgers and arrived just as the meeting started.

We began our discussion and I started chowing down my first burger. It was so good, because I was so hungry. I was only a few bites into it when our pagers went off, “Attention Bishop Volunteers, Attention Bishop Volunteers, please respond to an auto accident, with possible extrication at North Sierra Highway and Tu Su Lane.” Before the announcement was finished we were all scrambling for the trucks. I ended up dressed and in the driver’s seat of Engine 5, our utility vehicle. I fired it up and realized since we were at the station it was still going to 2-3 minutes for enough men to staff that rig before I could roll. I hopped out, leaving Frank Carr in the passenger side and ran back and got my 2 burgers.

Shortly we had our crew and headed north on Main Street, full lights, siren and air horn, which by the way is so fun you wouldn’t believe it.
After a few blocks Frank looked over at me and said, “What are you doing?” It was at that point I realized I was driving code 3 with one hand and eating my burger with the other. I just looked him and said, “it’s a burger to go”, reached in the pocket of my jacket, pulled out my second and offered it up. “Do you want one?”

At this point we started laughing so hard at our ridiculous situation that it made it very tough to continue, but we managed to settle down by the time we had to pick up the radio and transmit, “Engine 5 to Bishop Base, We are on scene and in service”.