MERRITT â In his 30-year career as a firefighter, Merritt Area Fire Department Chief Ed Nettle has seen a lot.
When his department was dispatched over the weekend for the third time in a week, Nettle wasn t shocked. While it is unique for the rural volunteer fire department to have a string of fires like that in less than a week, Nettle said it s not unheard of. It s just that it hasn t happened in several years. In my 30 years, it can be cyclic. Some years we have 15 fire calls total. Then there are years we have 35 to 40 in our rural area, he said. You can have times where you have three or four fires in a short time and then go months without one. It s cyclic.