The past four weeks have been a bit crazy for the Onset Fire Department.

In addition to the minor calls that flow steadily into the department on a daily basis, firefighters had to deal with four major fires - which is pretty unusual - in addition to the wrath of Tropical Storm Irene.

"We had four fires in 28 days... and most of them required a lot of work," said Onset Fire Deputy Jeffrey Osswald.

To show the firefighters that their hard work did not go unnoticed, the Board of Engineers and Chef/Captain Raymond Goodwin served up a big spaghetti dinner on September 1 and passed out certificates of appreciation to the crew.

Goodwin's cooking received many accolades from hungry firefighters. Goodwin said he and his colleagues just wanted to thank everybody for their efforts.

The firefighters spent "a lot of time away from their families in the month of August," Goodwin said.

The first major fire of the past few weeks occurred on July 23 in a basement of a split-level home on Hiawatha Road in the Indian Heights neighborhood. No one was injured. The home suffered heavy smoke damage.

On July 29, Onset Fire, along with six other nearby departments, battled a stubborn four-alarm fire at the vacant inn at 13 South Boulevard. Firefighters worked from 11 p.m. until 3:30 a.m. and a crew stayed to monitor for flare-ups well into the following afternoon. The blaze was deemed accidental - caused by plumbers soldering pipes earlier that day.

Then, on August 1, a fire broke out on the second floor of a cottage located at 28 Sariah Road. That fire was also deemed accidental, caused by crews removing copper piping from the home.

The firefighters had a short break from working fires, but not for long. A blaze the department considers "suspicious" ripped through an unoccupied home at 6 Back Street on August 20. Back Street, a dirt road behind Onset Avenue, and was difficult for firefighters to access. Two firefighters received minor injuries while battling the blaze.

Just to keep everyone on their toes, Hurricane Irene made its way up the East Coast the following weekend. Much to the relief of emergency responders, however, the storm was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit Wareham.

Onset firefighters, along with the rest of the town's emergency officials, are still working with Irene-related problems.

The crew agreed that the response to the storm went well.

"Without everyone as an entire unit, the operation wouldn't have gone as smoothly as it did," Osswald told the firefighters as they debriefed after the feast.

The craziness may not be over yet. The peak of the hurricane season for southeastern New England is August and September.