Fort Worth,Texas Fire Fighter Looses Grandfathers Wedding Ring in while Fighting Brush Fire!
On Friday afternoon we received a call from a Fort Worth fire fighter. He said that he and his crew had been fighting a brush/fence fire behind a home where a woman had thrown out some 2-day old fireplace coals. The coals had set the compost pile and fence and part of the yards of 2 homes on fire. He said his buddy had lost his Grandfathers ring which he now wears as a Wedding Ring. It was 3pm on Friday afternoon, they were 52 miles away across Dallas & Fort Worth and 5pm Friday afternoon traffic was a major contention. I knew it would take a minimum of 2 hours to drive there so I asked if we could come on Saturday due to traffic, but the young firefighter had panic in voice and ask us to please come.
How can you say ‘no’ to a Fire Fighter? It took us nearly 3 hours to get there due to the heavy traffic.
He was waiting for us when we arrived and explained that he had been inside the backyard of the home and was knocking out the burning fence slats with the palm of his hand while fighting the fire. He knew exactly where he was standing (in the wet, smelly compost pile) when it came off, and it was lightly raining… Get the picture?, pretty much a yuck site.
With a desperate customer, our Garrett equipment and rubber boots we went to work. Thinking the ring flew off some distance into the field behind the home, we searched everywhere. Eliminating nails, iron, junk, etc. doing everything we could to find the ring. After an hour it was starting to get dark and everyone was loosing hope my wife went back into the backyard and began slowly going through the compost pile with her detector and pinpointer. Understand this compost pile was about 18-inches thick and 5-ft by 5-ft in size. It was soaking wet from the fire being put out, burnt from catching on fire and wet burned trash just really stinks. But this is what the fireman was standing on when he was knocking out the burning fence slats. I was coming into the backyard to help her when I heard her yell out « I Found It », the fireman was standing right there when she found his ring, he was so excited. He kept saying « you guys are awesome, you guys are awesome, unbelievable!, wait till I tell the guys back at the station! ».
This was by far our dirtiest hunt, but one of our most rewarding.
Our Firefighters across this country will run into a burning home or building for us without thinking twice about it, the least we can do is work through muck to find a wedding ring for them.
This was a very emotional find for us and we are so glad to be part of « The Ring Finders ».
Till next time, detectors ON!
Don & Ellen
