The Oak Ridge Fire Department, A History by Don McGuire

PREFACE

Trying to keep up with a bunch like Don McGuire is how I draw my pay.

I have been privileged to work in four fire departments over the past 25 years, come June, and I have been honored to lead three of these as Fire Chief. Fire fighters are unique people. Don does not over state this phenomenon. During two hiatus from the fire service I have worked for a major daily newspaper, and for a large bank: the people in these industries are no match for fire fighters in their uniqueness.

Chief Ed Broome hired me to work in the Columbia, SC Fire Department in June of 1972, and he was right, I haven't been worth a damn for anything else since I stepped into the jump seat of Ladder 26, and made the short trip up to Lincoln Street for a pot of grease on the stove, not on fire, but smoking like hell.

Captain Rufus Hoover gave me an appreciation for fire fighter safety when he laughed at me for using a safety belt while I worked off the aerial at the fourth floor level while hanging the United Fund banner. (Ironically the City of Columbia Employee's United Fund drive would be boycotted by the International Association of Fire Fighters union local that year so that there would be space available on the check stub for union dues check off). Captain Hoover also held helmets, boots, and air packs in disdain. The department buried the captain less than a year after he retired he died of lung disease.

Fire Fighter Engineer John Douglas and I were knocking down "a couple of embers" above the baptistery in an Independent Methodist Church when enough volatiles cooked off the tongue and groove pine sheeting in the vaulted ceiling to "light up." I had the nozzle and Doug was back-up, the door was behind us, but Doug ran me over, I got up, he ran me over again, then dragged me out. Eddie Burch was found wandering around and around in a Sunday School classroom, with five sides, and he couldn't find the door.

Fire Fighter Donald Douzart, while reloading hose after an apartment fire, related to a fellow fire fighter, "I was crawling out of that hot son of a bitch when I run into the Chief's legs." His friend, "what you do?" Douzart's answer, "Why I crawl back in. If that son of a bitch can stand it standing upùI can stand it on my knees."

This book is about the Oak Ridge Fire Department, but a fire department is really its people. Therefore, the book is about fire fighters. Fire fighters worldwide are the same--the physics and chemistry with which we do battle is the same. These days, the biology, virology, and pharmacology are the same.

As Don relates the history and histrionics of the Oak Ridge Fire Department, and the City of Oak Ridge, in their evolutions, keep in mind that nothing is as constant as change, and we succeed only as well as we adapt, or cause, that change.

Mack Bailey, Chief ORFD

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