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Fire department elects new
officers
By LETA NOLAN CHILDERS
Capital Journal Staff
It’s the beginning of the
year and the beginning of the term for Pierre’s latest fire chief—Greg
Baker.
A veteran of the department, Baker was elected late last year to fill the
position vacated by Tam Gatje. The department also elected officers for each of
the department’s companies.
“We have the traditions of 124 years to uphold,” said Baker, who added that
he didn’t see any major changes within the department for the next year,
except for increasing recruitment and creating team leader positions for some of
the rescue units.
“We have 65 firefighters now. We just added three in December,” said Baker.
“We can add 10 more and that’s what we’d like to do.”
According to Baker, the ideal candidate for the department is someone who
is“18 to whatever,” is energetic, can respond to emergencies, works as part
of a team and likes to give back to the community in which they live.
The commitment also calls for a minimum of 33 hours of training per year. And
the fire department has plenty to teach.
This year, the department is adding an ice rescue team, a rope rescue team, a
trench rescue team and a hazardous materials/weapons of mass destruction team to
the rescue squads already within the department.
Baker said he would like the department to appoint team leaders for each of the
squads. At present, Baker said that the department responds to nearly as many
rescue calls as they do fire calls.
“I think a lot of the credit for that is the improvement in fire
prevention,” said Baker. “Fire prevention programs have worked. There are
improvements in building materials, in smoke and fire detectors. People are able
to call us before a small fire becomes a big one.”
Much of the money for the new apparatus needed for rescue jobs comes from
Homeland Defense grants given to the department. The exception is the equipment
for ice rescue. The money for that equipment came from donations and
fund-raising.
The rope rescue team will be charged with rescuing those stranded on the cliffs
around Lake Oahe. Rescuers will use ropes to secure and rappel down to assist
anyone stranded.
The trench rescue is designed to help extract victims trapped by cave-ins. The
department had one such incident just last fall.
The hazmat-WMD rescue team is trained in dealing with materials that could be
hazardous if exposed to the public as well as attacks using weapons of mass
destruction.
The 2005 officers are:
•Chief Greg Baker.
•First assistant chief Doug Hinkle.
•Second assistant chief Ian Paul.
•Secretary Ryan Collins.
•Treasurer Todd Newton.
•Training officer Curt Hasart.
•Chaplain Charlie Walker.
Bill Newling is the captain of Engine Company No. 1. He is assisted by 1st Lt.
Shelley Roemmich and 2nd Lt. Curt Hasart.
The captain of Engine Company No. 2 is Dale Hartmann. Doug Ripley is the first
lieutenant and Sean Devine is the second lieutenant.
Leading Engine Company No. 3 is Capt., Jason Roggow, 1st Lt. Sean Kruger and 2nd
Lt. Danny Schmautz.
Chris Henrichsen is captain of Engine Company No. 4. Dave Ruhl and Jason Evans
are first and second lieutenants.
Ladder Company No. 1 has Charles Fetter as captain, Joe Trujillo as first
lieutenant and Matt Gacke as second lieutenant.
Ian Paul is the captain of the Rescue Squad. Ron Schmidt is first lieutenant and
Matt Gacke is second lieutenant.
Story by: LETA
NOLAN CHILDERS
Capital Journal, Pierre, SD
www.capitaljournal.com
For more information about the Pierre Fire
Department, e-mail the PFD
webmaster.
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