Firefighter reluctantly retires

MARENGO — A Marengo native is stepping down after serving with the Marengo volunteer fire department for more than 40 years.

The longest-serving Marengo firefighter at the time, Mike McBride retired from the fire department in December.

McBride hasn’t moved far from where he grew up in Marengo.

“This house was my grandparents house,” said McBride from his home on Cherry Ave. He lived across the street as a child. “This is the old family place.”

The back of the house faces the river, and wildlife often visits.

McBride graduated from Iowa Valley High School and worked for Amana Refrigeration in Amana for about 18 years. He served as head custodian at Iowa Valley High School for 25 years before retiring in 2014.

McBride started his career in emergency services with Rescue 48 before becoming a firefighter. He became a member of the county rescue squad in 1979 or 1980.

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“I did ambulance in the beginning, too,” McBride said. He served on the ambulance crew from 1981 to 1989. He joined the fire department in 1981.

Rescue 48 includes a scuba team for water rescues, but most of the emergencies the staff responded to were severe storms or car accidents, said McBride.

“I’ve been to many, many car accidents,” McBride said. “Especially Interstate 80.”

McBride retired from Rescue 48 at the same time he retired from Marengo fire.

McBride supposed that his desire to join emergency teams stemmed from a desire to help other people, but he admitted, “It’s kind of an adrenaline rush.”

Training in emergency services is a continuous process.

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“Training never stops. You always learn,” McBride said. “I always say I learn something at every fire.”

The job has changed “tremendously” since 1981, McBride said. “The gear that you wear to fight a fire today is just leaps and bounds better,” said McBride. The rubber coats and hip boots have been replaced with better gear, but it’s more expensive and heavier.

“Almost like being in a suit of armor,” McBride said.

Fires have evolved too, said McBride. Materials used in homebuilding and furnishings create more toxins, and firefighting has become more specialized.

Breathing apparatus has become lighter and now has radios built in so firefighters can talk with people outside the fire.

“The early stuff we had didn’t breath as easy,” McBride said. The steel tanks were heaver than the composite tanks now in use.

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When McBride started as a firefighter, cellphones didn’t exist. Homes had landlines.

The phone would ring fast for a fire call, and everyone would pick up, said McBride. Dispatch would try to get a location. “It was kind of chaotic. We didn’t have cellphones and pagers.”

Because of improved communications and phones that travel with people “we can respond more people faster,” McBride said. Within three or four minutes, someone is at the fire station, “and we’re on our way.”

“[C6-Zero ] was the biggest fire that I ever went to,” said McBride. “That was scary.”

The fire was hard to put out, McBride said. “Everybody in this area was there.” Coordinating all the agencies was challenging. “It was massive.”

Chemicals from the blaze ruined all the gear with a black, tar-like substance, and the foam on the water floated out and contaminated stormwater runoff.

“We were walking in it,” said McBride. The smell was terrible.

McBride said he was reluctant to leave emergency services, though the job is stressful — and tragic when someone dies in a fire or accident. “I still love it,” McBride said. “I still would like to keep doing it.”

But at 72, his strength isn’t keeping up with his experience. “I have the heart for it. I don’t have the body for it.”

McBride said Marengo’s fire department is in good hands. The young people on the job are very good. “I didn’t want to leave the place hanging,” said McBride, “and we have some real good guys now.

“It’s getting harder to staff a volunteer fire department,” said McBride. “You’ve got to have the right fit.” People have to do it, not because it’s cool to be a fireman, but because they have a desire to serve, he said.

“You have to be serious about it and go after it.”

Though the younger men have the strength for the job, they don’t yet have the knowledge the older generation has gained. “They look to the old guys,” said McBride, “and I respect that tremendously.”

McBride wishes the department could burn more old houses for practice. “We learned a lot by burning down an old house,” he said. Firefighters didn’t have to hurry, and they could watch how the fire burned.

But the state “has so much red tape” that the department can burn only two houses a year.

“I think the people in Marengo have supported our fire department over the years,” McBride said.

Now that he’s not on call for emergencies, McBride has more time for a lifelong hobby. “I like old cars,” McBride said. He’s is one of the organizers of the Marengo car club.

He also has more time for family. He and his wife visit his wife’s sister in Utah, and the couple has grandchildren in Walford.