Value emergency response and responders

Maybe it’s just because we so often have a front-row view of tragedy, but two items in this week’s brought home the extreme importance of highly- trained emergency responders and some relief that that training is happening.

Serving as a volunteer firefighter or emergency medical technician is far from easy, and considerable training is needed to be kept up even before the actual job of responding to emergencies is tackled.

So it’s been with some alarm over the years that the local availability of trained EMTs has seemed at risk.

A story on the front page about 17 graduates of a local EMT class gives a great deal of reassurance. Knowing many of the fine young people involved gives even more.

The top story, about a quick fire rapidly responded to last week, serves to reinforce the need for good fire response in the area. Several homes could have been lost to a wildfire Friday in Delano right off the highway.

Quick action by local volunteers and paid Bureau of Reclamation professionals saved the day.

Those were two pieces of good news it was our pleasure to report, which we hope will avert some future bad news from existing at all.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher