Duel blazes split efforts of Conway firefighters

As he rode in a tanker with his fellow firefighters, Deputy Fire Chief Adam Baker saw a column of black smoke cut through the evening sky from three miles away. With four team members by his side, Baker was headed straight for the smoke, where a double-wide trailer on Main Poland Road was quickly going up in flames. Baker was one of nine Conway firefighters who had just spent an hour and a half assisting their Ashfield counterparts at a log cabin fire on Briar Hill Road last Friday. By 4 p.m., as the Conway firefighters rushed to suppress a fire in their own town, it had already been a long day. Earlier that cold afternoon, at 2:20 p.m., the volunteers had been dispatched to provide mutual aid for the Ashfield Fire Department with a fire engine and a tanker. While the crew headed north, they called for Sunderland Fire Department to provide coverage at the Conway firehouse. Once the Conway team arrived at Briar Hill Road, they met up with Ashfield Fire Capt. Matt Haskins, who was leading a team attacking the log cabin fire. Ninety minutes later, an alarm went off in Conway for another fire engulfing a double-wide mobile home, camper and van. The Conway team’s radios were channeled into a regional tower and the call wasn’t reaching them. As they worked to control the flames in Ashfield, Greenfield Fire Chief Robert Strahan, who was also on scene, told Baker to call dispatch. There was a working structure fire in Conway. The Conway firefighters were torn. The Ashfield and Conway fire departments are each other’s number one partners. The Conway firefighters were reluctant to abandon their Ashfield partners. Ashfield Fire Chief Del Haskins told the Conway firefighters they could leave to assist in their own town, where other mutual aid departments were already headed, according to Baker. The Conway firefighters jumped in their tanker and headed back home. Sunderland firefighters covering the Conway station were the first ones to respond, Baker recalled. While in Ashfield, Baker had assumed a regular firefighter role, but now back in his community he switched roles to operations manager on Main Poland Road. Herrmann, the Bensons and Vanderheld, on the other hand, continued in their role of directly fighting the fire. “We had the same role. We just changed location,” said Herrmann, a member of the force for 10 years. It was Ms. Benson’s first major structure fire. The 19-year-old had already been training for five years. But she has only been active for one year. Firefighters have to be 18 to give full support. Vanderheld is a veteran of the force, serving 13 years.