By RANDY GONZALES
Special to the Hays Post
Members of the Ellis County Fire Department are like a family. Like any family, there are anniversaries observed and celebrated, especially milestones.
The ECFD had an open house on Oct. 14 as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. About 450 people dropped by the station at 1105 E. 22nd, and many of those ate a free barbecue meal.
There were games and activities for the kids. Fire trucks and gear were on display. Items were raffled off. And two mascots – Sparky the Fire Dog and Smokey the Bear – even made an appearance.
Part of the mission for the ECFD family of volunteer firefighters is to help families in need.
“You see people having their worst day,” said Adam Napell, assistant chief for Company 5 based in Hays. “However, we are grateful we can be there and help them.”
They were needed on Dec. 15, 2021.
There are about 100 firefighters in the Ellis County Fire Department, and it was all hands on deck that day and the next two days as they battled a blaze while also fighting high winds.
What became known as the “Four County Fire” tested the limits of the ECFD. According to the Kansas Forestry Service, the fire was the largest in Kansas and 10th-largest in the United States that year. It burned about 45,000 acres in Ellis County and about 121,000 acres overall.
“That was the largest fire Ellis County has seen, that we know of,” said Darin Myers, ECFD fire chief since 2015, who previously was a firefighter with the Hays Fire Department.
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The firefighters worked together as a team to eventually extinguish that blaze, just like all the ones before it and ones since.
Myers said it takes three things to make it all work efficiently: the firefighters themselves; their spouses and family; and their employers, who allow them to leave at a moment’s notice to answer the call.
“I’m very passionate about the fire service and our firefighters,” Myers said. “The challenging thing for me is being able to spend enough time with each of them to stay on a personal level and get to know them and their families better. I consider every one of them as my friend.”
That togetherness is what stood out for Chris Muench, who retired a year ago from the ECFD after 23 years of service.
“The camaraderie with the guys, that’s what I miss,” Muench said. “That was the toughest part to walk away from.”
Today, the department has six fire engines, four brush trucks, three rescue trucks, three water tenders and three support vehicles.
That’s a far cry from the humble beginnings in 1973. The first fire equipment 50 years ago consisted of Army jeeps with 80-gallon tanks and Army 6x6 vehicles.
In 1973, Ellis County commissioners Ted Gerber, Eugene Schmeidler and Harold Kraus passed a county resolution to form the Ellis County Fire Department.
Previously, fire calls were handled by the Civil Defense department. Today, the department has six companies: in Hays, Victoria, Ellis, Catharine, Schoenchen and Munjor.
“In the last 50 years, if you look at fire service, so much has changed,” Myers said, citing technological advances. Myers added he was appreciative of the county commissioners, who provide the resources the department needs.
Muench said he joined all those many years ago because he thought it would be fun. Little did he know what he was getting into when he answered the call for his first fire.
“My most memorable one is my first one,” Muench said. “It was a 16-hour fire – all hay bales. We had to unroll all of them.”
“I was having fun at the time; the camaraderie was great,” he added. “The camaraderie was the whole reason why I loved it.”
There is a sign on a wall at the station that reads: “The Ellis County Fire Department will serve our community with pride and professionalism by providing quality emergency services, acting with respect, and bringing honor to our community, department, and family at all times.”
The firefighting community in Hays and Ellis County recently lost a longtime member Chris Stegman, who passed away on Oct. 8.
There was a memorial service for Stegman — who served both with the Hays Fire Department and Ellis County Fire Department — on the same day as the open house.
Myers, who served with Stegman on the Hays Fire Department, said it was a bittersweet day, but he remembered the good times, too.
“We had a lot of us (at Stegman’s memorial service) today and still try to get this going on,” Myers said. “Chris was a heck of a guy. He had a lot of stories, a lot of memories.”
Myers said while firefighter numbers have declined nationally, locally that is not the case — but he always is on the lookout to add to the department’s numbers. He said there are brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, grandfathers and grandsons — families all working together to protect Ellis County residents.
“It’s that whole family thing,”Myers said. “I think that’s what helps us become successful.”
