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Fire Chief Phil retiring this month

Monday, May 12, 2008

Phil Johnson didn’t set out to be the Farmington fire chief for a span of nearly two-and-a-half decades. In fact, he only planned to help a coworker deliver some fire-retardant foam to a airplane crash site back in the spring of 1979 ... but that day the firefighter flame was kindled somewhere inside the maintenance worker.

Now Johnson will retire at the end of May after serving the Farmington Fire Department for 29 years. He became fire chief in 1984, meaning this year will mark 24 years of service in that role. He admits there’s been many changes to the department since he first signed on.

“I worked with Dave Nelson, and he was a volunteer on the fire department. A military plane crashed (near Fredericktown) and they called up and needed foam,” Johnson remembers. “Dave asked me to ride along to take them the foam. When we got there they asked us to help look for the pilot.” That day, and being involved in the search, was what would eventually trigger a change of career for a young man who was working as a maintenance worker at the county courthouse.

“They asked if I wanted to be on the department. It was all volunteers at that time. I liked it. You know, you get an adrenaline rush from being on a call,” the seasoned chief explains.

At that time the Farmington Fire Department had two pumper trucks and a box van. There were about 25 volunteers who received a little specialized training a couple times a year. Firemen were paid a couple dollars for responding to calls but most did it for other reasons — the feeling of providing a public service, the rush that came with fighting fires, or because maybe their family had been assisted by the fire department at some time and it was a way of giving back.

As the years went by the department would buy additional equipment. In 1981 they acquired a rescue truck, which was actually a retired telephone truck. The fire house was located where it still sits today at 104 West Harrison. It was a nearly new building when Johnson began volunteering in 1979.

Back then the department was dispatched to calls through pagers and scanners. When you heard your tones, or your pager went off, you would call the dispatcher on the phone and tell him or her that you were headed to the call. That was long before cellphones, so the call was made before you left the house or the fire station.

Johnson and others began taking fire classes at Mineral Area College in 1980. The classes would allow firemen to get certified as a Firefighter 1 or Firefighter 2.

In about 1983 Johnson was promoted to captain on the department. In 1984 he was promoted to fire chief. At that time the department had one person working an eight hour shift five days a week, with the rest of the firemen being volunteers. By 1985 a second full-time worker was added, and being the fire chief was Johnson’s main job.

Over the last nearly three decades Johnson has seen many tragedies, triumphs and changes in technology. Great strides have been made in air packs, turnout gear, computers and other fire-fighting apparatus. Things such as flame-retardant clothing and infrared camera systems have literally saved lives of residents and the firemen responding to keep the public safe.

As for the “worst of the worst” that Johnson recalls, the biggest and most expensive fire he helped fight was the blaze which tore through the Little Tikes Commercial Play Systems building in the industrial park. Another memorable blaze was the fire at the city barn which involved fighting a fire inside a metal building which was being fueled by the accumulation of years of oil and fuel being soaked into the building’s dirt floor.

The chief has responded to thousands of motor vehicle wrecks. When asked about memorable wrecks, he recalled the four or five airplane crashes the region has seen since the 1970s.

Perhaps the “unusual” calls are too numerous to remember them all, but one quickly comes to Johnson’s mind. The department was dispatched to a home where a resident had apparently suffered severe facial burns. When firefighters arrived they found a man staring at them through two dark circles set in an otherwise “beet red” face. His wife had been in another room when she heard an explosion, ran into the kitchen and found her husband in a horrid condition. “I guess from where you’re at it’s pretty funny,” he told Johnson and other firemen arriving on the scene. It seems the man had been trying to use a spray can of red paint which would not spray properly because it was too cold. So he sat the can in a skillet on the stove to heat it up. The can overheated and exploded, spraying the man’s face and part of the kitchen wall with a burst of bright red paint.

As for the “best call”, Johnson has another favorite. In about 1985 a call went out to the then-relatively-new Wolf Creek Volunteer Fire Department of an infant not breathing. Since the Farmington department was assisting Wolf Creek firemen get their department started, Johnson decided to respond to the call from his house nearby. He was the first firemen on the scene and found a frantic mother holding a child which was obviously having trouble breathing. He remembers how the baby was limp and not looking good.

He asked the mother for a bulb syringe to help clear the child’s breathing passageways. Other firemen and an ambulance arrived and Johnson was asked to maintain lifesaving measures. He stayed with the baby through the ambulance ride to an emergency room, and even while the infant was being treated by doctors. “He did well and grew up well. He’s a big boy now, a lot bigger than I am,” Johnson recalls with a smile.

Another memory which comes to mind is a fire in 1984 when Johnson and another firemen went into a burning house and found a man which had been overcome by smoke. For their efforts the two firemen later received a heroism award.

Other highlights of his decades of service to the fire department include seeing the city’s ISO rating — used by the insurance industry to determine rates — drop from eight to four ... a significant achievement. Part of that rating improvement included new equipment, better training for firemen, annual inspections of public buildings and hydrant flow testing, and a change to a full-time fire department in 1998. The department has also expanded on offering fire prevention programs, fire extinguisher training for businesses, and providing smoke detectors to people who might not be able to otherwise afford them.

Something that became a big part of fire prevention programs, and which Johnson quickly gives credit to a long list of other people for, is the memorable little mechanized sidekick of the chief which traveled with him from school to school and businesses to nursing homes, Freddie the Fire Truck. Freddie, a remote-controlled model fire truck which sang, danced and moved his mouth and eyes, was a great public relations tool for the department for many years.

As for larger equipment the city has purchased in recent years, the department now has four pumper trucks and a ladder truck, a hazardous materials response trailer, and will soon be getting a command center vehicle courtesy of a grant. The Farmington Fire Department now has 29 employees including the chief, assistant chief, two captains, a lieutenant and a total of 11 full-time firemen and several volunteers.

Even with all the growth the department has seen, Johnson still wants to change the pace of life and enjoy some retirement years. When he hangs up his turnout gear later this month he’ll spend some time doing a lot of “little jobs around the house”, and working on a 1930’s car which he wants to get on the road. Someday, if he ever gets bored, he might look at finding a part-time job — but no time soon.

“I’ve always told everybody I have the best job in the county, There’s been ups and downs, but over all it’s been really good,” Johnson will tell you. “It’s been a really good job. I don’t know how I lucked into it.”

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