Fire chief has seen a lot of changes in 36 years

            BRANCH TWP. – “A day and night difference” is how Tom Posma describes Mason County’s fire service since he joined 36 years ago. At the end of 2010 Posma retired after 26 years as Branch Township Fire Department chief.

            “Back then, being a small department covering one township, we received equipment from the county through the hand down process,” Posma, 66, says. “The first fire truck was an early 1950s Ford truck. When you got a fire call and would respond to the station you would always hold your breath and hope that it would start. Today, the people have given us good, reliable equipment.”

            Posma says he joined the department because he believed it was a way to give back to the community. “I have been in the community for 47 years. I have made my living here and the community has been good to me.”

            He owns Tom’s Barber Shop in Scottville and lives in Walhalla.

            His tenure as chief has seen much change and improvement.

            The first major change happened in the mid-70s when the departments started using radio pagers.

The pagers allowed firefighters to receive alerts from the sheriff’s department.

            “People having an emergency would call the sheriff’s office’s seven digit phone number. A dispatcher would then start calling firefighters by telephone. When you got the call, you would call the next person on a call chain.

            “Now we have enhanced 911 service, which has been great. It has been a great ease by which you can call for emergencies. You don’t have to call a seven digit number anymore, you just call 911. It’s easy for people of all ages to remember.”

             In the early 1980s most Mason County fire departments started medical first responder units, supplementing the county’s ambulance response. This was another major change.

            For Posma, though, the most significant changes in those earlier days was the implementation of training.

            “Back then, if you could walk and breath you qualified to be on a fire department,” Posma says. “They gave you some turnout gear and you would start responding.

            “Training in Mason County really came into play after the Whiskey Creek fire in the early ‘80s,” Posma says. Whiskey Creek is a resort located in southern Branch Township. “Most of the departments responded to it and we had two or three firefighters get injured. After that, training became a big part of the fire service locally. Later the state began mandating training even more. The firefighters today are much better trained today, meaning there are less injuries among personnel and many more lives and properties saved.”

            Besides serving as Branch Township Fire Chief, Posma also spent several years serving as the Mason County Fire Chief. The duties of the county chief was to serve as a liaison between the departments and the county board of commissioners. It was more administrative than command, Posma says. He also has been a county commissioner for 20 years.

            Prior to 1996, the county’s 11 fire departments received all or some of their equipment from Mason County, especially the rural departments. When the county announced it would no longer fund the departments, the Mason County Rural Fire Authority was formed, governing seven of the county’s departments.

            “The fire service in Mason County took a huge step forward when the fire authority concept was implemented and the people voted to approve it,” Posma says. “It has had a major impact on the fire service. It has placed the departments on a solid financial ground, because everybody pays the same amount.”

            The municipalities of the fire authority include City of Scottville, Village of Custer, Village of Fountain, Village of Free Soil and townships of Amber, Riverton, Summit, Eden, Custer, Victory, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Branch, Free Soil and Meade. Property owners within those areas pay 1 mil on their accessed taxable value each year for 10 years. The fire authority is currently in the middle of its second 10-year term.

            “Prior to the fire authority, the county would put money into the fire departments when it was available. There was no budget. The creation of the fire authority has meant modern equipment for all the departments in the authority,” Posma says.

            “The other thing the creation of the authority has done is it’s broken down the barriers of territory. We still go by the independent names of the departments but in reality the Mason County Rural Fire Authority is basically one department with seven stations.

            “There are still some things that need to be done there. The fire authority now needs to look at boundaries. Everybody within the authority is paying the same amount, everybody should have as close to the same response time as everyone else. Currently that isn’t the case.

            “We need to look at how we can best financially sustain the authority by being efficient with monies and with our responsibility to the community.

            “I think the fire authority needs to be proactive on how it can best utilize its resources to provide the best service it can. We have to be proactive in looking at those things and not just stay with the status quo.

            After 36 years in the fire service certain incidences stick in Posma’s memory.

            A fire a few years ago near Tallman Lake took the lives of firefighter Richard Wallager’s daughter and her children.

            “I think that fire had the most impact on me as chief,” Posma says. It was a difficult incident not only for the firefighter who was involved but also for the rest of the department. We are all part of a larger family.

            “When I rolled up to that fire in the pumper, Dick Wallager was right behind me. He just amazed me. Knowing it was his family he did all he had to do as a firefighter. When you are on a small department, even as chief, you have to perform many tasks until other firefighters and equipment arrive. Dick started setting up our portable water tank. I was operating the pumper.

            “Finally I went over to him and said, ‘Dick, you are no longer a fireman on this scene. Go be with your family.’ It wasn’t because he wasn’t doing his job properly. It was hard because I knew he wanted to be there and do what he was trained to do. But at that point he needed to be a father and grandfather. That will always stick in my mind.”

            “Another fire that sticks in my mind is the Round Lake Hotel fire on Sugar Grove Road, simply because it was a very large fire. It was winter and the temperature was below zero. It was difficult to fight. We had guys on ladders who we had to literally chip away ice in order to get them off the ladders. They were frozen to them.”

            Posma says there have also been several medical emergencies, particularly car crashes that he still remembers. The most memorable, and hardest to deal with, he says, are those that involved children.

            Posma says for him and the department it’s time for a change, though.

            “It gets harder as you get older to do the work,” Posma says. “I’ve also gotten to a point in my life where there are things my wife and I would like to do, which are difficult when I have a commitment such as being chief of a fire department.

“It’s time to step aside and let the younger fellows with their fresher ideas and enthusiasm to come into play.”

            Posma says he is going to stay on the department at least until his medical first responder license expires in 20 months.

            “It’s been a great experience and I’ve had very good people to work with,” Posma says.

            Department veteran and former assistant chief Steve McVicker has assumed the duties of chief. Posma says he is confident McVicker will carry the department into its next era.