Just wanted to say what a wonderful job the Newton ransom fire company did Thursday night to rescue Ashley Keller from the raging waters on bridge lane- yea right. First of all, the fireman that was blocking the road thought that the screaming coming from the woods was a deer. Then had the nerve to try and stop the victims father from trying to rescue his daughter. The fireman that tried to stop him, now thinks that the father should have charges pressed on the father because he did not follow protocol. The only one that should have charges pressed against them is the Newton Ransom fire company because if the father had not gone to find his daughter, the family would be planning a funeral right now.
Yet again the Newton ransom fire company proves how untrained and under-qualified they are to handle such situations. There was such a lack of organization and control of the situation that the victim spent hours in the cold water while the fire company took 45 minutes to decide how to tie a rope. I would like to know who voted the fire chief into his position. He had no control over the situation. He was giving wrong directions to the other companies that were trying to respond and had know idea how to handle this situation. It was funny how the victims family was calling for some other members that used to be with the company because they knew things would have been done differently and there daughter would not have spent four hours in a creek and became so hypothermic that she was delusional. I'm sorry it should have never taken that long. The fire company wasted so much time trying to figure out how are we going to do this and who was going to do what. Its pretty bad that the neighbor had to jump in the water to get the boat to her after the fire company made several failed attempts. There needs to be a completed investigation as to what went wrong and why this played out the way it did. If not for the victim’s father, family and the neighbor this would have had a tragic outcome. Instead of following your damn protocols, you should think about how unorganized, untrained and uneducated your members are. Newton ransom has yet again proven why they are the laughing stock of the area fire companies. You prove every time that the pager goes off that Clarks Summit, Chinchilla, Justus, and lake Winola will beat your company to a fire call that is one mile away from the fire company. Clarks Summit and Chinchilla usually pass the fire company and Newton has not even made it out the bay doors. You can keep your bi-laws and your damn protocols. No wonder you can’t keep members, no one wants to be associated with such an organization. If you responded to that call, you should be embarrassed on how your "chief" handled the call. This is not meant to all the fireman, just a few (and you know who you are S&S). All you heard on the Newton repeater was that the ladies auxiliary was concerned about making the hard working volunteers sandwiches. They were there for four hours- not ten, but wait, 75% of the fire company are over-weight and in terrible shape-just who I would want to come and rescue me. You should hope and pray that the family of this victim does not press charges against the company. Way to go boys- another excellent example of your stupidity. Bravo, bravo!!!