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good time, too. One of his favorite memories was training to be on the rappelling team for helicopter responses, saying he still had the harness he wore for those missions.

Stein recently rejoined the department as part of the retired reserve as a tender truck driver. He said the rst time he came to grab a truck, other, younger re ghters wondered who he was, and they welcomed him like a brother once they learned his new role with the department.

George Merchant, who served from 1979 to 1999, said he remembered going from just boots and a jacket to full re ghting bunker gear during his tenure with the department.

among the re ghters was the department’s greatest asset.

“ e fact that we came from all over the place, and we worked together to put out a re made it special,” she said. “Training was fun, and I made friends. It was a challenge, but the challenge was fun.”

The 1980s

Joe Stein, who served from 1985 to 2006, said innovation was necessary in those days, noting that the re ghters worked hard but had a

Dick Merkel, who served from 1972 to 1982, recalled the huge amount of work to combine the re department with the separate ambulance service. He said re ghters responded to calls and waited for the emergency medical personnel to arrive. It made sense, he said, to combine the two services.

“We went from providing rst aid to an EMT program,” he said. “It was memorable to get the rescue unit going.”

His wife, Judy, was especially grateful for the combined department because Dick was hit by a drunken driver in 1989, and “they saved his life because of the pro-