Thank you, firefighters

I am writing to thank the Bigfork Fire Department! The Bigfork Eagle had a picture of our fire on the front page of the newspaper last week. Our guest cabin burned to the ground and the main house was catching on fire. These wonderful men instantly put foam on the main house upon arrival. The guest cabin and the chicken house were a total loss. I was mostly saddened that all my chickens burned to death. All our tractors and equipment burned plus our darling 1913 guest cabin. The guest cabin was only 20 feet from the main house so we were extremely blessed.

We were concerned that the fire trucks had such a difficult time getting up our driveway. Only one truck had automatic chains. The others had to be chained up. Our driveway is not that steep nor far from Highway 35. It was icy but I drive it daily without chains. We live eight miles south of Bigfork. We can see that the fire department is hindered by having to chain up to travel up driveways in winter. Possibly a fund-raiser could be held to raise money so all the trucks can have automatic chains? Another good idea when you live remotely and call for emergency assistance, is to face cars toward the highway and put your flashers on with your car so it is easier to spot you.

I cannot thank them enough for saving our home. It was the day before Christmas Eve. Also Flathead Electric stayed that night until 10 p.m., to restore our electricity. So a big thanks to them as well! I called the emergency number to have our phone fixed and although it was a work day, I was advised to call back Tuesday when they would all be back from the holidays. Why do they have an emergency number? Fortunately we had cell phones so that was not really a problem. However our computers and TV were out for a week because that was the soonest the phone company could schedule us. They did compensate us.

Harvey and Sharyn Conn

Bigfork