FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- As "Retreat" signals the end of the official duty day and vehicles line Missouri Avenue in the rush to get home in time for dinner, there is a special group of men and women who serve the community vigilantly throughout the night -- the Fort Leonard Wood Fire Department.
Fire Chief Lloyd Fox said these dedicated men and women wear many hats -- not only do they protect and serve during the day, but they are also ready at a moment's notice throughout the night. They work 24 hour shifts, day on and day off, for eight days straight before they get a break.
"Our mission is to protect and provide firefighting provisions and services to the community," he said. "If the community has an issue -- last shift they had a lady lock her keys in the car with two kids inside -- we respond and try to get the doors open. If there is a house fire, we respond.
"Our primary objective is people, property and the environment in that order," he added.
"Any type of incident that the garrison may have, from a wild land fire to a hazmat or medical emergency, confined space incident, high angle rescue incident -- these guys are trained to respond and mitigate and save lives."
Sgt. Brian Hessler, one of eight military firefighters serving Fort Leonard Wood, said he dreamed of becoming a firefighter his entire life.
"It's the closest thing to a superhero I could be," Hessler said. "You put on your suit, get in your cool car and go save people. I love it."
Hessler said working with the civilian Fort Leonard Wood firefighters has been a blessing for him, as many Army firefighters do not get to do their jobs every day like he does.
"We get to be here, we get to be on shift, we get to run 911 calls, we get the experience, we get all the training we need to help us when we deploy," Hessler said. "Everything I learned from these guys gears us up for it."
Capt. Mike Drozdo said a typical night in the life of a Fort Leonard Wood firefighter actually begins with a normal day when they report to work at 7:30 a.m. They complete daily duties until 5 p.m. then sit down for dinner, which gets interrupted more times than not.
"We are pretty much guaranteed to receive a call during dinner three days out of the week because that is when everybody is leaving post and generally it's a car accident," Drozdo said.
After 5 p.m., if the firefighters aren't responding to calls or washing the response vehicles, they work on college classes and the many certifications they must have in order to be firefighters.
"Ninety percent of the department are EMTs also," Capt. Mike Drozdo said. "We have two paramedics and I think our last count was 28 EMTs. Most of the new guys coming in come in with five basic certificates."
Within the first year, a firefighter has to have 10 certifications in order to keep their job, Drozdo said.
Drozdo said they sleep when they can, but it's usually not very good sleep because when they receive a call they have to be up, dressed and out of the firehouse within 60 seconds.
"Most places in the cantonment area, we can be there within three to five minutes," Drozdo said.
Drozdo said something that can prevent emergency services from getting to a call in a timely manner are vehicles that do not properly move over when they see response trucks heading to a call -- vehicles should always move to the right side of the road.
"People don't realize that when we are running our lights and sirens, it is imperative they move over to the right because we are trying to get there to save someone's life or help them," Drozdo said. "They either don't want to get out of the way or their radios are so loud they can't hear us."
Because firefighters wear many hats, they stay busy all year round, because if they aren't responding to a fire, they are performing ambulance assists and have to respond to every car accident on post. They also do everything from cutting locks to cutting rings off people's fingers.
"We average anywhere from eight to 15 phone calls over a 24-hour period. Eighty percent of those are medically related," Drozdo said. "Sometimes we respond to kitchen fires, and even fires started from popping popcorn."
Fox said people can access the Fire Department's awards through the Department of Emergency Services website, at www.wood.army.mil/lec/ FireDepartment/Awards.html.
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