Photo by Mike Lamb Mike Remiger has served 40 years as a volunteer firefighter in Wabasso.

Mike Remiger remembers his first house fire as volunteer with the Wabasso Fire Department.

“It was a fairly new house and pretty well engulfed,” he said. “I was in with the air packs and stuff with couple other guys. And I’m thinking, ‘why am I doing this?’ “

That was more than 40 years ago.

While he’s recently been trying to retire from the department, he’s now considered one of the leaders in the assistant chief position.

“Now I’m the first one to put a pack on and go in,” he said.

When Remiger tried to retire back in December, Remiger said Fire Chief Troy Welch asked him to stay on a little longer while they recruit new members to fill the four unfilled positions in a 25-member department. Remiger, Andy Platz and the other assistant chief are in charge of training.

“Between the three of us, we make sure everybody comes in for our drills and get all of their required stuff done. When we get somebody new on they do a 100-some hour class — Fire fighter 1 class. We got a couple of them now going for HAZMAT even. That’s a plus because there’s so much junk out there.”

Otherwise, new members will watch and listen to Remiger and other trainers.

“Our new guys, when they first get on, it’s just follow the leader. Just follow us around until they get most of their schooling in and we’ll take them through each truck. Show them how to operate the trucks. But they can’t operate it at fires without someone else helping them. Everybody is supposed to know where all the tools are on each truck. And it takes time for them to learn. They are all involved with the drills,” he said.

Remiger says the department holds regular meetings and hold truck and equipment checks.

“We check everything over,” he said. “We take the trucks out and pump water. We run them and whatever we have to do.”

In a small city like Wabasso, Remiger said service to your community is important. His service in the fire department started 41 years ago when the fire chief at the time asked him to join.

“And I said,’ yea, I suppose,’ But that was back in ’83. It’s a long time ago. The wife was on the ambulance service. She was an EMT for 40 years. She was on two or three years before I was. And then I started on fire. She retired a few years ago.

Remiger’s son, Jerry, has been on the fire department for 15 years.

“We are out there to help. Everybody thinks they got to have big pay. Well, you are on it as a volunteer. I call it volunteer,” he said.

Through the 40 years, safety is the biggest aspect that has changed, according to Remiger.

“Back when I first started, my very first fire that I went on, we went out the door and we had to stand on the back of the truck. There was a bar and you just hanged on. You go down the road 60 mph or whatever. It wasn’t long after that they put safety straps on all the trucks. Then pretty soon, nope, we got a rescue truck and our other trucks, and we all ride these vehicles,” he said.

“Everybody is in the trucks when we roll. We got a lot better trucks now than we ever had.”

When new volunteers

Overall, Remiger says he enjoys training others for the department.

“I think I do or probably wouldn’t do it anymore. Most of them listen to what you tell them,” he said.

“They want to know what’s going on.”