Ash took her job seriously and there were many tasks she carried out in her 14 years of service.
“One of those was to greet everyone who walked through the front door,” said Pleasant Valley Fire District Chief Mark Kidd. “So it’s fitting that she sits in front of our station to greet visitors.”
Kidd was one of those who spoke so kindly of their mascot Ashes who was memorialized with a statue at the department’s annual open house at the culmination of the 2014 Fire Prevention Week.
”She came to us in 2000 as a puppy,” said Fire Lt. Scott Cantrell as he delivered a eulogy to the long-time mascot of the department that serves portions of rural Union and Madison counties in central Ohio.
At first the Dalmatian didn’t have a name so the firefighters held a contest among elementary school students they visited.
“We chose the name Ashes, which soon became shortened to Ash,” he said.
In her early days she made messes on a firefighter’s bunk or in his boots.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t have a run that night,” Cantrell said, and the audience crowded around him snickered.
“We house trained her, and then started teaching her tricks,” he said. “She could ‘sit’ and ‘shake hands’.”
“If the gong went off when we were eating, it was a buffet for her,” said Cantrell, adding “we quickly learned to put our plates up where she couldn’t reach them.
She soon learned to ‘stop, drop, and roll’ to augment lessons firefighters taught children. Then she added ‘The Stomp’ as she used her paws to show how to stamp out a small fire. She slithered on her belly as she showed children how to crawl under smoke. They imitated her.
“She took her role very seriously,” Cantrell said.
It didn’t take long for Ashes to become a favorite of the community.
“As much as the community loved her, she loved the community,” said Chief Kidd.
Ashl had her own bed, a toddler’s bed shaped like a fire truck. She’d greet Kidd at the front door when he came to work, and then greet the firefighters.
“By roll call, she’d have had about a dozen dog biscuits,” the chief said.
Fiscal Officer Toni Stevens took it upon herself to make sure Ashes had her medications.
“They might be out on a run or forget about the meds,” she said. Toni and Ashley had a routine. Toni would make peanut butter sandwiches for Ashl and slip her medications in the sandwich.
In 2014, age caught up with Ashes, and she crossed the Rainbow Bridge in July.
Not only was the department saddened, so was the community.
Kidd was able to use funds bequeathed to the department by a community member, and firefighters built a brick pillar topped with a block of concrete. On top of that sits a statue of Ashes, a dog painted by firefighter Jeremiah Bates who so carefully studied his subject that “he’s got the spots in the right places,” said Kidd.
A firefighter’s plaque graces the front of pillar while a hand-etched tag reading “Ashes, 2000 – 2014” is attached to the concrete slab.
In the audience, a mother embraced her teenage daughter whose lower lip was quivering.
“It’s all right, honey,” Mom said as she put her arms around her daughter’s shoulders.
The memorial to Ashes touched the community in so many ways.
The recently retired chief chose this day to head to Florida for the winter, Stevens related. We couldn’t get him to delay it a day and come to our open house. He said he just couldn’t do it.
After the memorial ceremony, around 100 community residents walked among the department’s vehicles, an auxiliary vehicle the Union County Emergency Management Agency sends out to major fires to provide respite and support for firefighters, and munched on cookies, sweet rolls, popcorn, cake adorned with photos of Ashes, and sipped a variety of beverages.
“There were probably a lot of tears out there,” Kidd said of the audience during the ceremony.
She’s also remembered inside the fire station. The lone photo hanging on the hallway wall is a black-and-white photo of Ashes, and it’s outside the chief’s office.
Will they get another dog?
“We’ve looked,” Kidd said. “But we have to heal first.”
