NATCHEZ &045;&045; To see Capt. Johnny Franklin and Lt. Robert Owens at Fire Station No. 4 on a Saturday, you’d think a firefighter’s life is a relatively peaceful one.

True, they do have those times &045;&045; cooking turkey legs and watching TV and rain took up some of Saturday afternoon &045;&045; but it’s not all a leisurely existence, Franklin said.

There’s the daily drill of inspecting and maintaining equipment, conducting school fire inspections, inspecting hydrants and the like.

And there are the calls the station, located at Liberty Road and Seargent S. Prentiss Drive &045;&045; more, they said, than any other Natchez station.

&uot;Other stations cover north or south &045;&045; we cover to Jefferson, Franklin and Wilkinson counties,&uot; Franklin said.

Then there are … well … those other calls. And they’re not just talking rescuing cats from roofs, either.

&uot;The other day we were called to get an iguana out of a tree,&uot; Franklin said matter-of-factly.

&uot;He’d gotten loose and gone all the way up that tree. We knocked him down with the water hose, and he went right up it again. The second time we knocked him down, a policeman caught him.&uot;

Although much of the job is hot, some calls leave Franklin cold &045;&045; particularly the ones involving snakes. &uot;We get called to get snakes&uot; out of houses, he said. &uot;I personally am not going to touch them.&uot;

One thing’s for sure, Franklin said &045;&045; the real life and vocation of a firefighter differs in some key ways from what the public sees on TV shows such as &uot;Rescue Me&uot; or in movies such as &uot;Ladder 49&uot; or &uot;Backdraft.&uot;

Franklin refers to a scene in &uot;Backdraft&uot; in which a firefighters runs into a blazing house to save those trapped inside and leaps back out with everyone safe.

At this, both Franklin and Owens burst into laughter.

&uot;No equipment or nothing,&uot; Franklin said, shaking his head. &uot;If you went into (a burning building) like that, wouldn’t no one come back out alive.&uot;

&uot;For one thing, you’d get overcome by the smoke&uot; before anything else, Owens chimed in.

&uot;They have to film it that way because of the cameras, but in a real fire you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face,&uot; Franklin said.

The accuracy of fictitious fire tales aside, the real-life show of Fire Station No. 4 is about to get a new set, and its occupants can’t wait.

In their last meeting, aldermen authorized Mayor Phillip West to sign a cooperative agreement with the Mississippi Department of Transportation to replace the Liberty Road fire station with another station to be located across Seargent S. Prentiss Drive from the current station’s site.

The relocation is needed due to MDOT’s planned construction of a new interchange at Seargent S. Prentiss Drive and Liberty Road.

The station will move to a location across Seargent S. Prentiss Drive near Super 10.

The firefighters show visitors the signs of age at the decades-old station, from aging bathrooms to cracking kitchen tiles to a lack of storage space.

Although they’re not sure when they will move into the new station, or even when it will be built, Franklin said one thing’s for sure.

&uot;We’re going to like it over there,&uot; he said.