Caledonia firefighters not only helped an 84-year-old man after he fell while painting his deck, they also made sure the paint job got done.
Racine County Eye reader Andrea Lundgren said she was returning home Wednesday afternoon when she heard someone yelling for help. When she went next door, she found her neighbor sitting in a chair in the driveway complaining about pain to his hip so Lundgren called 911.
“He thought he broke his hip, (and he) couldn’t move it but was able to manage to drag himself to the driveway onto a chair!!” she told us.
Members of the A shift responded to the home in the 6000 block of Highway 31Â and took the man to the hospital. While they were with their 
patient, he told them he was painting his deck and was worried it wouldn’t get finished.
Instead of just going back to the station, firefighters returned to the man’s home and picked up the paint brushes, a couple of them on their knees.
“This isn’t unique to the Caledonia Fire Department,” Battalion Chief Jeff Henningfeld said. “This is indicative of firefighters everywhere.”
Lundgren jokingly asked the firefighting paint crew if they were having a slow day, and that’s why they came back to finish the deck, but they said no and they’d stay until they got another call.
Fate intervened, and the firefighters were not called away. They left the man’s house around 5 p.m.
“The entire deck is completed,” Henningfeld confirmed. “No calls came in during the project.”
Lundgren posted a photo of the firefighters on the RCE Facebook page, and readers were quick to react, including the man’s grandson.
“Oh my gosh … thank you soo much for helping my grandpa,” Stephen Hesse wrote.