At the SUMA convention earlier this month, Fire Chief Donald VanMeer of Carlyle Fire And Rescue accepted a long time service award for serving the community of Carlyle for the last 31 years. In 1988 VanMeer joined the Carlyle Fire Department and was Deputy Chief on and off for a number of years as he wanted to allow others to take on the role, then 3 years ago he was voted as chief and has humbly held the position since. 

 

VanMeer has seen many changes over the years but one of the major changes he noted was communication. "From when I started," explained VanMeer, "there was fire phones mounted in the houses so when someone would call the fire number, one person, whoever heard the phone ring, so there would be seven phones in a community and whoever heard the phone ring would answer and get the information of where the fire was. They would then set the alarm off on the phone and everyone would go to the Fire Hall and they would have to call that line back and whoever took the initial call would have to give directions to where the fire was and then you left the Hall."

Since then technology has grown and now firefighters receive messages on their cell phones notifying them when there is a fire as well as all the details they need to know, which helps to cut back the time it takes them to get to the fire or emergency. 

VanMeer is planning to continue to stay on as fire chief for a few more years before stepping down and plans to continue as a firefighter afterwards.