Excerpt from post at pipenozzle.com on Ackley Argle Bargle and the Ecology of Fire.  Reprinted here with permission.  

"But the hazard load won’t go away no matter who runs the department or runs it into the ground. Firefighters see the world as a collection of hazards so the rest of us don’t have to look at them, and the total of hazards in a protection jurisdiction is the hazard load. It’s all part of the ecology of fire, of all things that burn. Firefighters know Amtrak runs 21 flammable trains a day through Groton. They know that Route 1 handles a daily traffic volume of 15,000 to 25,000 flammable vehicles with the number rising the closer drivers get to I-95. Route 12 sees the same volume pattern. According to the State of Connecticut, most Groton vehicle fires occur in the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District. 121,000 flammable vehicles cross the Gold Star Memorial Bridge daily (in 2004).1 The Groton airport handled 38,582 general aviation flammable flights in 2009. . . ."