{"id":46885,"date":"2021-10-11T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/meet-the-volunteer-friar-firefighters-started-by-st-maximilian-kolbe\/"},"modified":"2021-10-11T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T16:00:00","slug":"meet-the-volunteer-friar-firefighters-started-by-st-maximilian-kolbe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/meet-the-volunteer-friar-firefighters-started-by-st-maximilian-kolbe\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the volunteer friar firefighters started by St. Maximilian Kolbe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWe have a lot of work because there are always different accidents each year,\u201d he said. \u201cThese range from the cat in the tree to the flooded basement and disaster relief. You can say that any accident that requires help is work for the religious firefighters unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

They stay particularly busy during the summer and fall, when the weather is hot and dry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it began in 1931, the brigade responded to the local community\u2019s need: fighting fires that threatened wooden construction and houses. According to Fr. Jacek, it was a challenging task. He remembered a miraculous event where one brother fought a stable fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, hot tar fell on him, both on his helmet and habit,\u201d he said. \u201cTheoretically, he should have been dead, but it turned out that he was just a little injured where he had no clothes or habit.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Fr. Jacek, the brigade was a vocation and a childhood dream realized.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite reading, as for many boys in elementary school, was a book called \u2018How Wojtek Became a Firefighter,\u2019\u201d he remembered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n