Article courtesy of The Garretson Gazette and initially published on January 20, 2022
The Garretson Fire Department hosted its Annual Banquet and Dance on Saturday, Jan. 15. They did not host a banquet last year because of COVID-19 safety protocols, so they were happy to have an event this year!
Dan Wagner is the outgoing GFD Fire Chief. Levi Schmid will be taking over as the new Fire Chief, and the new Deputy Chiefs are Tad Heitkamp and Ryan Longhenry.
Chief Wagner reported that they had 181 calls this past year, 121 calls within the city limits and 60 of them rural calls. 124 of said calls were medical calls, and 15 of these were motor vehicle accidents. Their average response time for their calls was 8.5 minutes, which Wagner said is very good, and something the department should take a lot of pride in.
The GFD had a total of 2,222 man hours. South Dakota professional volunteer hours are rated at $26 per hour, so he said that in total, the GFD had donated over $60,000 of their time to the community.
Since they had no annual gathering last year because of COVID, he made his department update a double report. Mentioning COVID, he said simply that it sucked.
“It was hard, we all hated it, but we learned to cope,” Wagner said. “We learned new procedures and adapted as best we could with the times, with the best methods we could find to do it with. From just masking, to wearing full plastic kit, our guys stepped up to face this challenge and we’ve got a lot to be proud of as a department. We also did what we could to keep morale up in the community with things like Teacher Parades and Birthday drive ups.”
Wagner summed up his COVID summary with a joke that let off some of the steam of frustration with the ongoing pandemic.
“Hopefully, with this latest spike in infections, they tell us that it’ll all go away in two weeks,” he quipped. There was a good bit of laughter and a good deal of groans at this one.
Chief Wagner wanted to mention Todd and Mary Tilberg and the home that they lent to the department for firefighters to train in.
“There is just some situations that you can’t simulate in classroom or the firehall,” he said. “Todd and Mary were as good as gold to us, and in the end, they let us burn it to the ground as a training exercise as well. They were great hosts and I don’t know who enjoyed whose company more.”
The Garretson Gazette would like to extend complements to the Tilbergs and the Garretson Fire Department, as our editor, Garrick Moritz won second-place in the state award from South Dakota Newspaper Association for best photo series when he took a series of time lapse shots of the final burning of said training house!
Then Wagner came to the Annual Awards. For GFD Fireman of the year, they gave this coveted prize to Jason Janssen. Janssen is a certified EMT and has distinguished himself in dedication in that role as part of the Fire/Rescue team.
The GFD Business of the Year Award went to Quaintance Law Office of Sioux Falls. They have been the GFD’s legal representation for years. John Quaintance himself was unable to attend, but Ashely Schmid accepted on his behalf.
The last award was the Citizen Hero award. This is not an annual award, but is given out only in instances of merit. This year Jim Plahn received the award and it was well earned.
When the newly renovated apartment complex started on fire, Jim Plahn, an old veteran of the GFD, was on site. He closed the door to the room where the fire had begun, which any fireman will tell you is a huge deal because airflow is key when a fire is spreading. Then Plahn began to evacuate the building and got residents to safety with expedience. The conclusion of the GFD is that because of Plahn’s actions, lives were potentially saved and property damage was certainly minimized to mostly smoke and water damage, when the building might have been a total loss otherwise.
Plahn was very humble in his acceptance of this award.
“I just wanted to say how honored I am, and how professional this organization is,” Plahn said. “The Garretson Volunteer Fire Department has a reputation for excellence and professionalism and it’s well earned.”
