At 5:55 A.M. on Thursday morning, Feb. 5, Fire Associates was paged to a 2nd-alarm blaze in Morgan Hill. The fire was burning at 2490 Pinto Ct., near the intersection of Dunne Ave. and Hill Rd. on the city's east side. Mike Chappell responded in his personal vehicle and requested that a FASCV member also respond in a support unit. With FASCV's normal south county responders tied up with personal commitments, Jerry Haag responded to the call in Support Unit 1, only to have the call canceled. Here is Jerry's saga:
- 0536: I awoke to the full-first structural assignment by County Fire to 2490 Pinto Ct. Went to Thomas Map and confirmed in Morgan Hill. Figured South-siders would take it.
- 0545: Second-alarm response requested. Heard Mike Chappell go on the air (ham radio).
- 0551: First page from Sonitrol. Waited for someone from South to respond to page.
- 0603: Sonitrol reported Mike responding in own vehicle.
- 0636: Sonitrol put out another call for driver, as requested by Mike.
- 0640: Mike put his call on the ham radio again. I answered and he told me none of the South-siders were available and he needed a rig at the fire. I told him I would take FS-1.
- 0651: Sonitrol reported that I was responding in FS-1 with 60 minute ETA. That was at my request.
- 0715: I arrived at SNC Sta. 9 and was on the way out of the station at 0720 when I got Mikey's cancellation, as relayed by Bob Gundrum.
- 0724: Gundrum paged out the cancellation. I took the rig around the block to warm it up and then put it to bed.
However, even though in his own vehicle, Mike was able to provide drinks to the tired firefighters. Thanks to Mike, after all the confusion, FASCV was once again able to be of service.
