100 years of service

100 years of service

31 January 2009

published by www.news-journalonline.com

USA — As the Daytona Beach Fire Department celebrates 100 years of service to the community today, white-haired firefighters will shake their heads at pictures of hand-drawn chemical fire engines and remember that cumulative rush of adrenaline when the bell sent them rushing to the scene of the blaze.

They’re gathering in uniform at 10 a.m. for a ceremony at Fire Station 1. Built in 1925 when Daytona, Daytona Beach and Seabreeze consolidated, it now stands as one of the oldest active fire stations in the state.

BROTHERHOOD

For the men and women who share the bonds of commitment, courage and brotherhood it takes to be a firefighter, some things change, and some stay the same.

Those hand-drawn engines were replaced by 750-gallon-a-minute pumpers in the 1950s.

The days of segregation ended with the hiring of a black man in 1973.

Oxygen tanks and breathing equipment have become the norm after decades of firefighters relying on a handkerchief to filter smoke and debris from the air they were breathing.

“You had to be a smoke eater,” said Bob Dittman, 83, who retired in 1976 after 30 years and 30 days with the department. “If you couldn’t take the smoke, you didn’t have a reason to be a fireman.”

But no matter the changes in equipment, politics and personnel, the camaraderie and pride remain.

“People call it brotherhood, but it goes beyond what you can explain,” said Tony Weston, a firefighter from 1988 to 2008. “You expect so much from each other — you run calls, get dinner, sleep and eat as a big family — but, at the same time, you may go straight to a fire or a bad accident and everybody knows you’re relying on them.”

SOME THINGS CHANGE

Fire was a major threat in the early 1900s, before the department was founded, said Lt. John Taliercio, a self-proclaimed history buff. Daytona Beach watched its Seaside Inn, Princess Issena Hotel, Clarendon Inn and more than a few others go up in those early years.

Sitting inside his Palmetto Avenue home, Dittman can look out the window and see the top of the house he was born in on Beach Street. Hired in 1946 as a firefighter, he said he couldn’t have enjoyed anything more, thanks to colleagues like Eddie Sanders, still his friend to this day.

Dittman was there for the bowling alley fire and the Jai Alai Fronton fire in 1974. He facilitated one of the biggest changes in the current department by forming a union.

“I’d still be working if it weren’t for my pension,” he said.

Another of the biggest changes came with fire-prevention practices, particularly the use of sprinklers in big buildings. With less work, former Chief Mike McGibney said Emergency Medical Services response saved the fire service in the 1980s.

SOME THINGS HAPPEN ONLY ONCE

McGibney’s career started and ended with a bang.

He remembers vividly the day in 1979 when he got off the plane from Kansas to begin his job as fire chief, and a hurricane watch hung over the town.

“That was my trial by fire — trial by wind, whatever you want to call it,” McGibney said.

As Hurricane David touched down on the east coast, McGibney, more used to tornadoes in his Midwestern home than hurricanes, relied heavily on his staff — and bologna sandwiches — for those first three chaotic days.

“I’m in charge?” he remembered thinking.

Years later, he caused quite a ruckus when he drunkenly dropped his pants and “mooned” two area businessmen from the city fireboat in 1990. He resigned after pressure from the community after the incident.

SOME THINGS STAY THE SAME

Politics got in the way of firefighting numerous times, such as the many attempts by the city to create a Public Safety Organization — or combined police and fire service, former Chief Paul Skinner said. Too often, the fire department was the poorly funded stepchild of the police department, but it managed to do more with less, Skinner said.

Now, fire departments respond to more medical calls than fires. But those structure fires and brush fires still come, and, when they do, it can change lives.

Take the 1998 wildfires, for example. Local residents remember the half-million acres that burned statewide and the 300 homes destroyed. The firefighters remember that too — but they also recall how people from California, Colorado and across the country came down to help fight back the burning brush.

“I remember I just wanted to take my eyes out and rinse them in water, they’d been burning so long,” Weston said.