Maine Chief: Live-In Program Success

    Nov. 17, 2009
    A 19-year-old student firefighter was the first on the scene of a fire on Nov. 15 and quickly put out the blaze. His chief is crediting the Eddington Fire Department's live-in program with the quick response, according to The Bangor Daily News. The fire started when a man used an acetylene torch to work on his four-wheeler that morning when it apparently caught the wooden shed on fire and quickly spread to his home.

    A 19-year-old student firefighter was the first on the scene of a fire on Nov. 15 and quickly put out the blaze. His chief is crediting the Eddington Fire Department's live-in program with the quick response, according to The Bangor Daily News.

    The fire started when a man used an acetylene torch to work on his four-wheeler that morning when it apparently caught the wooden shed on fire and quickly spread to his home.

    The student firefighter, Dale Wonder, heard the alarm at 11 a.m. and was the first to reach the residence. Wonder is in his second year in Eddington's live-in program and is enrolled in the fire science program at Eastern Maine Community College, the report said.

    Wonder was able to begin knocking down the fire while other firefighters arrived to help.

    "The first 10 minutes (of a fire) dictate the next two hours," Eddington Fire Chief Jim Ellis told the newspaper. "It's a success story for our live-in program."

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