The tale of the tillerman

By Will Crois

Special to the Express

I have a fantastic story to tell about this firehall. I lived across the street from it back then. One day, my sister and I heard the fire alarm and ran outside to see the trucks depart.

The excitement of watching the men slide down the pole and the trucks rush out was a glimpse of hurried drama when we were young. We have seen this many times, but this time it will be different.

The men slide down the brass pole, donned their fire attire, and mounted the two trucks. One truck was smaller, red and carried two men, the other was known as a hook and ladder, a long truck with a driver and another man seated on top of the end of the truck and steered the back end.

The large doors opened the men readied, the truck started and out they rushed. This time, though the door had not been raised all the way and when the "hook and ladder” pulled out the man on the back hit his head on the door knocking him off to the cement below, the truck went on fishtailing down the road, unaware that there was a man down.

We hurried toward the fallen hero, and upon inspection, we observed an unresponsive man with blood on his head. Then help arrived and we were pushed away. We heard the wail of an ambulance siren and hoped the firefighter would be ok .