The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

I t was late one Tuesday night. I was putting together the newspaper in our temporary office in what's now the coffee shop. The town was already asleep and I was happily finishing up the layout of the week's edition when I got a whiff of the same smell as I had earlier in the day .

Exhaust fumes.

Only this time, they were so strong I was starting to get a head ache. There was no logical explanation for the smell. There were no idling trucks on Main Street.

The smell couldn't have been from inside the office. There are no fuel-powered appliances in the building. The heater is electrical. Still, it was getting pretty bad and this late at night, I wasn't sure who to call to help me locate the source of the fumes.

So I called emergency dispatch and asked if they could send someone over, quietly, to help me figure it out.

Moments later, the town siren went off and before I knew it, a volunteer crew from District 2 and the Ambulance Service was in the building in full gear, with medical release forms and with lots of questions about the odor and the equipment in the building.

I was as surprised by the full-court response to my little incident as I was by the speed with which the first responders showed up at my doorstep.

I felt a bit sheepish for making the call and at the same time thoroughly relieved at the coordinated and professional approach of the responders. I realized that they have no choice but to be completely prepared for anything. What if the fumes came from something about to ignite or explode? What if my headache was the first symptom of asphyxiation?

I suddenly had a new appreciation for the extent to which first responders help keep us safe, day in day out, with little pay and at any time of day or night.

As we remember how the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked 10 years ago, we automatically recall the many sacrifices made by the first responders on that infamous day and the days following in New York and Washington, D.C.

Many of us will forever associate those tragic events with the bravery of those men and women who risked their lives trying to save others. Of course, the parallel between that earth-shaking calamity and my mystery fumes at the newspaper isn't about comparisons of scale, it's about response.

Day in day out, local first responders take risks and make sacrifices. When the siren goes off on top of City Hall, they have only one focus: to get to the station, put on their gear, beat it to the scene and do whatever it takes to protect and save the lives of others.

As a journalist who often follows the responders to report the news, I've seen it in the blistering heat of summer when towering flames in a field threaten nearby homes and I've seen it in the dead of winter when a driver is trapped inside his car after a rollover accident on icy roads.

The focus and professionalism are always the same. The dedication is always there. It's something local residents in trouble can always count on and for this, I for one, am deeply grateful.

It's an honor to live in a community where men and women are willing to make such sacrifices for their fellow residents at virtually no pay. At a time when first responders are remembered in light of 9/11, it seems fitting to remind ourselves of the unassuming dedication among first responders here in Waitsburg, Prescott, Dayton, Starbuck and Dixie.

We never did find the source of the fumes at the newspaper. We left the front door and windows open to let the office air out. I finished up the newspaper and went home.

The fumes were gone the next day, but not my sense of gratitude. One of the firefighter even came by the next morning to follow up, check on the fumes and check on me.

We're lucky here in the Touchet Valley. We're in very good hands.

You know who you are. Thank you for what you do.