~ By Paul Ziegler

I have not had many life experiences that had changed my perspective on life or on myself. I have had a relatively boring and uneventful life. What I do have a memory of is my time volunteering at the local fire house. This “service” was significant in my life because I do not usually like to give my time to anything that does not pay, and firefighting was never anything that I was really all that interested in. It was during my first-year volunteering that I had a somewhat perspective changing experience.

            I was pressured into joining the fire house by a friend. At the time I was not so good at saying no to things. After 8 months in, I was enjoying learning and doing the menial tasks of a probationary member. I had not been ready to attend any calls until one day.

            The whistle went off and I hauled ass to the station, the call came up as a residential building fire. If the call was legitimate, it would be my first fire. As the truck got closer, it became more and more clear that the call was not in fact bullshit like the last few had been. It was a trailer/mobile home fire at that trailer park near the 422 onramps in Valley Forge.

            I spent the next three hours hacking away at burning mobile home walls with a Boston rake and hook. It sounds a bit menial, but it was sort of exciting. Not only was it my first building fire, but it was a large fire at that.

            What changed my perspective about this event was the juxtaposition between the excitement, comradery and almost happiness of the fire fighters and the man who had just lost his entire home in the span of a few hours. I had a new perspective on how easy it could be to lose everything. This man had done nothing wrong; he had not left anything on the stove or smoked in bed or anything moronic like that. The total loss was the result of some faulty wiring. Ever since this event, my perspective and confidence in the quality of mobile home construction would change. In addition to that, my perspective on the everlasting of property I hold dear would also be altered.