Another week of Red Flag warnings and wildfires scorching hundreds of acres throughout Essex County, the first responders tasked with battling these blazes will have their hands full. With incidents that can involve being in extreme conditions for hours, firefighting means being in constant risk of injury and exhaustion.
This is where Rehab Five, a Peabody based organization of volunteers, comes in. Founder and Owner Roger Baker started the service in 1986 when he flipped a used ambulance into a canteen service for firefighters. Over three decades later, Rehab five now operates five specialty vehicles, two commercial ice machines, and provides portable toilets through an agreement with a vendor.
“It’s important that firefighters not only stay hydrated but get calories in them while doing the physical work,” Baker said. “So one of the things that we are doing is organizing food and calories to get out deep into the woods where the firefighters are.” This means attaching a grill to an ATV so a volunteer can drive right to the scene and make fresh food, both saving precious daylight and providing warm meals to fuel the firefighters.
Rehab Five also carries a fully fitted mobile kitchen that serves up food to those working on the outside of a wildfire. With some help from local restaurants and neighbors, Roger and his crew are able to feed those fighting the blazes who could be there for hours on end.
Fire Chief Jay Dowling, who has been with Peabody Fire for 29 years, lauds the essential assistance Baker and Rehab Five has provided firefighters over the past decades in Essex County.
“The work he does, it’s unbelievable,” Dowling said. “He’s there to provide water, gatorades, he’s got wet towels for us … if it’s a long duration event, he brings his vans and his trucks to get out of the elements.”
In firefighting, this process of cooling down, rehydrating, and getting prepared to return to the fight is called rehabilitation. Most of the year, Rehab Five is going to house fires with equipment that keeps firefighters from dangerous overheating. But when wildfire season kicks in, Baker pivots to these long duration battles.
“We’ve gone through about the same amount of water and gatorade that I use in a year,” Baker said. When he reached out to the community for help in replenishing Rehab Five’s supplies, the response was overwhelming. “I got home from a brush fire the other day and I couldn’t get in through the front door because there was so much water and gatorade piled there.”
With the organization having more than enough provisions to keep firefighters sustained in the field, Baker is asking those who wish to help to donate money that will go towards keeping Rehab Five operating. “Really the big cost of Rehab Five is insuring the vehicles,” Baker said.
As a non-profit organization, the money being used to pay for the $30,000 annual fee is coming directly from Baker’s pocket. He likens it to how some people will “spend all their money on titanium golf clubs or fuel for their fishing boats.” Instead, Baker devotes his time and money towards helping save lives.
Rehab Five provides an essential service that can sometimes be forgotten by the wider public. With brush fires scorching across the state, Baker and his crew have become more important than ever and continue to prove themselves to be figures of esteem within the Peabody community.
