STOUGHTON - Pat Slater lives in Stoughton, and he became the fire chief of the Stoughton Tecumseh Fire Department in 2006. He has volunteered for this department for 40 years.
Slater has seen a lot of things over the years.
“It is a great feeling to get a trapped person out, but it is horrible when we cannot,” he said.
“We do not do this job for the glory, we do it to help our community,” he added later.
The department has 26 members on the roster, but only 15 of them are active. Volunteers come and go, so it is difficult to get everyone on the same level of training, but this is what they strive for.
It is always great to have larger number of members as it makes the job easier for everyone involved.
When a call comes into the department, depending on the situation, Slater must mentally prepare himself first and then prepare his people for the task on hand.
According to Slater, some members of the department handle certain situations better than others. There is always something to do, so they are assigned to what they do the best.
Being a firefighter also brings health issues. Since 2018, the fire department has lost three members to cancer, all related to the smoke on the job, and another is having chemotherapy treatment.
Slater feels this job is very hard on the body, yet they keep doing it to help others.
Another concern is mental health issues. This too, Slater has seen over the years. Sometimes what they deal with, especially a horrible situation, wears on the department members, and they need to know they can get help. One never knows when the system has become overloaded and begins to break down.
“When this happens there is a list of counsellors to help out,” said Slater.
He went on to say that he does not always see the members, so a list is sent home for families to keep an eye on.
According to Slater, they are a very tight-knit family. When one hurts the rest of them feel it. It is a tough job, so they need to support each other.
Each situation is different.
“I always prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” he said.
Slater is a mechanic by trade and owns a shop in Stoughton.
