More often than not, when one of the area fire departments is called to a scene, Roger Baker and Rehab 5 are there as well. Serving North Shore firefighters for 30 years, Baker and Rehab 5 work alongside area fire departments, providing water or sports drinks.
In more extreme situations, they have equipment that can help the firefighters cool down, and they can cook meals for them on scene during longer-lasting fires.
Baker has 15 volunteers, and he and his team respond to around 150 calls per year. They’ve already taken on 107 this year, he said.
The team is self-dispatched — Baker listens to the departments’ radios and determines when his team should go.
“We haven’t missed a second-alarm fire,” Baker said. He said he and his volunteers respond to 80 percent of “working fires,” and will sometimes go even if it’s something minor.
The organization, a nonprofit, got its name from how the state is broken up into fire districts — District 5 covers all of the North Shore, including Peabody, Danvers, Beverly and Salem, to Cape Ann.
It has five vehicles, including two buses and an old ambulance, Baker said. They’re stored in Peabody.