Thank You to Everyone
Submitted by Benkelman Fire Chief Relgene Zimbelman
“I want to shout out a big thank you to all the volunteer fire fighters that were here and helped us put out the fire on Friday, January 15, to all the EMS personnel who came, to the Sheriff’s Office and the dispatchers for their help, to Helena for the water to refill the trucks, to the school for serving breakfast and lunch, and to the people and places who donated food and drinks. You are all amazing people. It was a cold windy night with freezing temperatures and high winds when the fire started out north of town and the fire whistle blew. I knew when I first saw the big, orange glow, we could use more help; so I had the dispatchers at the sheriff’s office start calling mutual aid. A couple of towns even called us to see if we needed more help and they came too. I couldn’t believe how fast all the departments got here to help us. Anytime a volunteer firemen goes out on a call, they are putting their lives in danger to help others and I don’t have enough words to tell you how much it meant to me to see all these volunteers and trucks coming to help us get the fire under control. So I want to say thank you to all my firemen and all of the mutual aid fire departments who came to help us with the fire. Thanks to all the EMS personnel from here and other towns who came and helped evacuate the hospital and the Hester Home and were there is case any firemen needed them. Thanks to the Sheriff’s Office and the dispatchers for all your help. Thanks to Helena for bringing water. It really helped refilling trucks faster so they could keep fighting the fire. I also want to thank the school for serving breakfast and lunch to all the firemen. We really needed the break and food to keep us going. Thanks for all the food and drinks that were donated, we really appreciated them. Once again I say thank you to everyone for all your help. I just have to say how proud I am of everyone on the fire department, proud to be the fire chief, proud of the EMS group, and also proud of the people in this town that stepped forward when their help is needed. “
/s/ Fire Chief Relgene Zimbelman
