GAS WELL DRILLING

A gas well company was going to be drilling for gas and they need to have a fire truck present. The company asked the city, “How much would you charge us to be there at 5am until we finish, 2 or 3 in the afternoon?”  I said, “Well we have two trucks, a big one and a small one.  I said, how about $600 to be there on standby.”  They said, okay.  So I asked Oscar Delgado, Bebe Rey’s brother if he would go to drive the big truck and Tomas, the fire chief, would drive the small one. And I drove the city car.

So we drove out there about 4 in the morning.  It was way out in a field out there.  There was a bunch of cattle out there that we passed up that were right on the road.  We were off the highway on a dirt road.  I was in the city car first and I went real slow and the cattle moved aside.  Oscar was right behind me, he went slow the cows just stayed on the side.  And then Tomas was coming up behind.

 I saw them in the rear view mirror and after we turned to the left  I saw Oscar in his truck but I saw Tomas with only one head light.   I thought it had two head lights. Now it only had one head light.  So when we got to the place where they were going to do the drilling, I parked the car and Oscar said, I’ll park the truck right here.   I said, “Did you notice the fire chief’s truck only has one light on it?” He said, “I think he hit a cow, I saw it in the rear view mirror.  I think he hit a cow and the cow’s horns hit the head light.”  He said, “There’s probably a cow walking around with a headlight on his head.”  I said, “Yeah probably.” 

So we are standing there and the guy from the drilling comes over and says, “Okay you have two fire trucks, okay.” Then we can start the drilling.  So Oscar and I were looking toward the drilling and I looked back and  said, “Where’s Tomas, where’s the fire chief?”   Then I looked up and he’s standing on top of the big truck in the military position called at ease.  Where they stand with their legs open and two hands clasped behind their back.  He was looking all around.  I told Oscar, “There’s Tomas.”  Oscar gets that look, and says, “What’s he doing up there?”  I told Tomas, “What are you doing up there Tomas?”  “I’m checking for fires.” He was scanning all around. I said, “You don’t have to look for fires, you just have to watch the drilling.  If that flares up into a fire, then we have to rush up to put it out.”

I don’t think we would have known what to do. I’m the mayor, I don’t know about fire trucks.  The whole thing ended okay.  Good thing they didn’t have a fire.  And the drilling kept getting faster and faster.  And then you could hear it really going faster down below. I told Oscar, “I’m going to move the car a little further away.”  Just in case anything happens, the car would be safe and if there was a fire they would call the truck in.  Okay put out the fire.  Where’s the hose.  We’re paying $600 guys.  Tomas would say, wait a minute hold on, this hose goes with the big truck and this one goes with the little truck.  The fire guys.  Yeah, yeah, take it easy.  Good thing that didn’t happen.  It could have been a disaster.  And so I parked the city car further away and pointing out, in case anything happened, I’m getting out and driving away.  Gotta go for city business.  Let me know how it turns out guys. Hey, wait a minute Mayor, how do you run these hoses?

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