Despite the danger and disruption to property owners and renters, a couple of recent structure fires turned out to be proving grounds of the Holmen Area Fire Department reorganization and its improved ability to respond. At the Holmen Area Fire District Association Board’s Feb. 16 meeting, Assistant Chief Bill Bulawa reported on the fire department’s response to a kitchen fire in the town of Holland and its assistance to the Onalaska Fire Department when that department was battling an apartment complex fire. At the town of Holland fire scene, the HAFD was the primary department responding. Because of the remote location of the fire, the HAFD sought help for the suppression effort from neighboring departments, employing the mutual aid agreements it recently set up with the departments.