Reader Ed C has shared some photos of Lancaster County firefighters putting out a blaze in the Strasburg area in winter 2012. You can read this post for more background on Amish serving on fire companies in the Lancaster community.

Amish are involved in more than a token way on fire companies in Lancaster County, with one official estimating up to 300 Plain firefighters serving on local crews.  You’ll notice in the photos below a number of the firefighters are Amish, including the red-helmeted fire officer in the center of the 11th photo down.

This fire broke out in a small barn/storage garage, which as you can see in some of the photos below, was packed to the brim full of stuff.  I’m not sure how many companies were involved, but besides the Strasburg company you can see there are also members of the Bird-in-Hand company represented here.

These photos capture a little bit of the drama of a firefighting operation in action. From the looks of it the firefighters got the upper hand on this blaze but not without significant damage to the structure.

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Ed also includes photos from a couple of fire company-related events.   This first set is from the Bird-in-Hand EMS/Fire Appreciation event in May 2005.

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This final photo is of young Amish members of the Intercourse Fire Company manning the Fire Safety booth at Intercourse Heritage Days, June 2006.  

Amish teens may start training on a limited basis with local companies after leaving school. A friend’s recently-graduated son is doing so now with the Blue Ball substation of Garden Spot Fire Rescue.

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