Fire department invites interested volunteers

The Clear Lake Fire Department is in need of a few additional recruits and will be holding interviews soon. 

CLFD Public Information Officer Billy Krefft prepared this story to hopefully give someone a fun understanding as to what “a day in the life” would be.

A Day in the Life of a Clear Lake Volunteer Fireman

It’s Thursday, the third Thursday of the month. Just a typical day for a Clear Lake volunteer fireman. Up at dawn, my wife clicking her heels on the kitchen floor below me, the smell of coffee lingering in the air. My son sits at the dining room table, 

dressed and ready for the school day, eating his oatmeal. I know without looking the sounds below me downstairs are a repeat of so many days before. It is routine, what wives and kids need.  Routine, clock watching for the bus, coffee in the travel mug, backpack on, makeup on her face, same stuff every day. 

Not me. 

As I scrub the crust built up in the corners of my eyes from a late night watching The Ultimate Fighter reruns and I approach the shower curtain for my morning wake up, the loud, ear piercing electronic tones squeal from my pager. The page is obnoxious and signature sound is recognizable to those of us on the CLFD as a break in the monotony, a chance that our dedication, knowledge, and selfless service to a community member, is needed.  I listen to the Clear Lake Police Department’s dispatcher.  Will the call require my assistance?  Will it be a call that is needing only the CLFD Medics this time? Certain calls don’t require the additional need of the 28 volunteers on the fire department and may be a call that the EMS services can handle. 

The call is for a woman in her early 70s, who has fallen in her home and cannot get up. She may have injured herself but is not sure. She is asking the CLFD EMS to respond and help at her home within the city limits. Well, that’s the way we hear it. As a volunteer, we listen to the stuff between the lines, and then listen for the possibility that the EMS staff encounter something a little more serious, or need some help getting the patient to the ambulance. You just never know. Even though this call was “routine” it still gets my heart racing every time. Welcome to my life of chaos. Not routine, ha-ha. And we love it!

Cleaned up and smelling good I head east to Mason City for my “regular job.” You know, the one you do every day to bring home - Read More Via e-Edition