A fireman's life

In 1992, John Holland got his chance to be a fireman when the Plains Rural Fire Department was started.

In 1992, John Holland got his chance to be a fireman when the Plains Rural Fire Department was started.  When the new fire crew was formed, they did not even have their own building and had to share with the city fire department.  In 1996, the rural fire department finally got a new building where they could set up shop and prepare to fight fires throughout the area.  That is not the only thing that happened in 1996, as Holland also became assistant fire chief.

Holland received yet another promotion in 2005 when he was named Fire Chief.

“Helping people is the best part of my job. When you get a fire out people are always happy.  I’m happy with this.  I’ve always lived in Plains and being a part of the fire department, you’re giving back and helping the community,” said Holland.

Holland said the biggest challenge they face at the rural department is a lack of volunteers.  This year they have around 12 volunteers, which is a solid number ready to take on the fire season. However, there is always room for more volunteers especially as the months begin to heat up.  In addition to managing these volunteers, Holland also watches over the junior fire fighters.  This year, there are six junior fire fighters, including Holland’s son Mike.  An in-depth look at the junior fire fighters will follow in coming weeks.

“My son is a junior fire fighter.  He’s been involved with it since it started. He’d always dress up as a fireman when he was little and was always going with me to the fire department and that was cool,” said Holland.

To combat the need for more volunteers, Holland said he and his crew are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week in case a major fire breaks out.  Holland said he is worried about this summer’s fire season and is hoping the county will see some rain before summer is here.

“I’m really worried about this summer, things can change and we can get a lot of rain, but still. It’s so dry out there it’s terrible,” said Holland.  There has already been one wild land fire this season.

In 18 years of working with the rural fire department, Holland has never been injured, with the exception of a few minor burns and suffering from heat exhaustion when a train derailed on a 100 degree day. The largest fire Holland has seen was the Baker Fire four years ago, which burned over 2,000 acres in about an hour’s time.

“We had retardant planes and helicopters and firemen.  This was the biggest for structure protection and we didn’t lose any structures and no one got hurt,” said Holland.