Safety
The best call is the one we never get.
A working smoke alarm, two ways out, and a plan everyone in the house knows. That's most of it. Here's the rest.
Leaf-burning season
Burn permits are required in the Hollow through May.
Leaves and brush only, in a pile you can step around, with a hose charged and someone watching until it is cold. No burning when the wind is up or the banner at the top of this page says so. Permits are free: call the station.
Smoke alarms
Request a smoke alarm check
A member will come to your home, test every alarm, replace dead batteries, and install an alarm where one is missing, at no charge. We make a point of it for older residents and anyone who can't get up a ladder.
How it works
What happens when you call 911
You call. Stay on the line.
the county 911 center answers. The dispatcher asks where, what, and whether anyone is hurt. Answer the questions; the page is going out while you talk.
Twenty-seven pagers go off.
Cedar Hollow has no one sitting in the station. Our firefighters are at work, at dinner, asleep. The tones reach every member at once, and the ones who can go, go.
They drive to the station.
Members respond from wherever they are to Station 1, pull on gear, and roll the first rig as soon as a crew is aboard. This is the part that takes the minutes: it is the difference between a volunteer department and a paid one, and it is why we need members who live close.
The first rig is out.
Usually Engine 1 with the first three or four members, then Tanker 2, Brush 3 or Rescue 4 as more arrive and the call needs them. Pine Run and Stony Creek are paged for working fires.
We stay until it's done.
Fire out, patients handed to Hollow Valley EMS, scene safe, and then back to the station to wash hoses and fill air bottles so the next call starts clean.
The honest version of "how long will it take": longer than in a city, and shorter the more volunteers we have within a few minutes of the station. If that bothers you, join.
Make a plan
Your home escape plan
Draw your home, mark two ways out of every room, pick a meeting place outside, and practice it twice a year. Print the sheet and put it on the refrigerator.
Print the escape plan sheet
A one-page grid for your floor plan with the checklist on the side. Nothing is stored; it just prints.
Open the sheetThe three rules
Smoke alarms on every level and in every bedroom, tested monthly. Two ways out of every room, and windows that open. One meeting place outside, and once you're out, stay out.
Around the house
The short list
Kitchen
Stay with what you're cooking. Keep a lid nearby; sliding it over a pan fire puts it out. Never water on grease.
Heating
Three feet between a space heater and anything that burns. Chimneys cleaned yearly. Ashes in a metal can, outside, away from the house.
Charging
Lithium batteries on a hard surface, never under a pillow or on bedding, and unplugged when full. A swollen or hot battery goes outside.
Burning
Permit required October through May; call the station, it's free. Never on a windy day. A hose or bucket within reach. Check the banner at the top of this site first.
Carbon monoxide
A CO alarm near the bedrooms, especially with gas heat, a wood stove or an attached garage. Never run a generator in a garage.
Your address
Reflective numbers at the road, visible from both directions at night. We can't help a house we can't find.