Although the Naples Airport was not contiguous to other City property, it was owned by the City of Naples. Accordingly, it was patrolled by the NPD. We'd take a long loop around, well into the County, to get to the distant cousin of Amenityville.
One late night I was taking the tour and on arriving at the airport noticed a glow in the window of the small terminal building. (At the time it wasn't much larger than a residence) Looking through the jalousie door I could see flames. Not having a key, I pried up a jalousie and, in my best burglar fashion, pushed in the screen and turned the knob from the inside.
Once in, I could see flames coming from a waste basket. I extinguished the fire with a couple cups of water from a nearby cooler. There being no apparent cause for the fire, I called dispatch and told them to make the Naples Fire Department aware of the blaze in case they wanted to investigate. But, that as far as I could tell the danger was over. About five minutes later bedlam broke out.
Then, there was only one full-time fire department in Collier County: the Naples Fire Department. The other communities were serviced by volunteer fire departments. The volunteers did a good job considering they had little training and inferior equipment. But there are always some clowns out there.
One such circus-on-wheels had been monitoring our dispatches, heard the incendiary word Fire, and had decided to, well, volunteer. They blasted into the parking lot, siren screaming and emergency lights painting the scenery red. After skidding the dilapidated wagon up to the door, a crew of two men charged the door with a fire ax and began shucking the jalousies from the door frame. Then they uncoiled a hose and began spraying the inside of the building. I hastened to end this debacle.
"Why the hell did you bust out the jalousies?" I asked. "The door was unlocked. And why are you spraying? There is no fire."
One volunteer looked at me, then at the building. Then back at me, then at the hose. "SOP" he said.
Soon I convinced them to get the hell out of there and they rolled up their hose and departed.
The fire caused no damage. The volunteers caused thousands of dollars worth with their water and fire ax assault.
And for some time after, whenever I lit a cigarette I looked around to make sure these buffoons weren't in the area.
One late night I was taking the tour and on arriving at the airport noticed a glow in the window of the small terminal building. (At the time it wasn't much larger than a residence) Looking through the jalousie door I could see flames. Not having a key, I pried up a jalousie and, in my best burglar fashion, pushed in the screen and turned the knob from the inside.
Once in, I could see flames coming from a waste basket. I extinguished the fire with a couple cups of water from a nearby cooler. There being no apparent cause for the fire, I called dispatch and told them to make the Naples Fire Department aware of the blaze in case they wanted to investigate. But, that as far as I could tell the danger was over. About five minutes later bedlam broke out.
Then, there was only one full-time fire department in Collier County: the Naples Fire Department. The other communities were serviced by volunteer fire departments. The volunteers did a good job considering they had little training and inferior equipment. But there are always some clowns out there.
One such circus-on-wheels had been monitoring our dispatches, heard the incendiary word Fire, and had decided to, well, volunteer. They blasted into the parking lot, siren screaming and emergency lights painting the scenery red. After skidding the dilapidated wagon up to the door, a crew of two men charged the door with a fire ax and began shucking the jalousies from the door frame. Then they uncoiled a hose and began spraying the inside of the building. I hastened to end this debacle.
"Why the hell did you bust out the jalousies?" I asked. "The door was unlocked. And why are you spraying? There is no fire."
One volunteer looked at me, then at the building. Then back at me, then at the hose. "SOP" he said.
Soon I convinced them to get the hell out of there and they rolled up their hose and departed.
The fire caused no damage. The volunteers caused thousands of dollars worth with their water and fire ax assault.
And for some time after, whenever I lit a cigarette I looked around to make sure these buffoons weren't in the area.
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