Second season.
Oh, second season.
But it’s been very recent.
What did they do with the old houses, just burn them down?
Burn them. They took some salvage lumber out.
Are the new units furnished and all that?
Yes. The Community House is serving as storage for all the excess furniture that isn’t in all the Sleepy Hollow houses.
That’s interesting.
What was your role in fire protection?
We went to fire school my first season. I helped with one fire in Steel Circle and I’m still unsure as to how that came about. It was very quickly put out.
Was that a structural fire?
No, it was in the forest and it just covered a very “small area”. A bulldozer was brought over right away and a fire truck. But it was something to behold, the crowing of fire going from tree to tree. Crowing I guess they call that. But that’s the only fire I was involved in. I do remember an incident where we were out on fire practice and we set a little practice fire. Jack Broadbent was our instructor and he was really a take hold, take change kind of a guy. If he didn’t like the way things were done, he’d get in and show how it’s to be done. This one time, he got into something and it was just a fury of activity. It was highly energetic and by the time he’d finished he was just streaked with dirt and sweat and looked like Pig Pen and he says, “Now that’s the way you guys are supposed to do it.” But he did it all, and the rest of us are standing in there watching him. I’ll remember that as long as I live. He was the ranger of rangers I can’t say enough about him.
Was the Watchman Museum largely devoted to the [fire protection] topic?
The Watchman Museum, as I recall, the displays were devoted to fire protection. Is that still in operation?
