Half a century of service

Every firefighter in the region knows the name of Gari Gill. In fact, after half a century of service, it's safe to say there isn't a firefighter serving today who hasn't fought by his side at one time or another.

Gill retired at the beginning of this year as Fire Chief for the City of Sundance, bringing his total number of years as part of the county's fire response to 52.

"It's time," he smiles.

It's not the first attempt he's made to step away. Gill was all set to retire in 2015, having already told the county commissioners that he would be resigning as Crook County' Fire Warden.

But when Mayor Paul Brooks turned up on his doorstep, asking him to serve once again as the city's fire chief and help fix the ailing department, how could he say no?

First, he told the mayor, he'd need agreement from his wife, Mona, who patiently supported him through so many years of missed holidays and family events. The brutal summer of 2012, he recalls, there were 357 fires; he didn't have supper with her for 49 nights in a row.

Fortunately for Sundance, Mona agreed that the department needed Gill's help.

"She said, something has to be done. So I came back," he smiles.

"I was still county fire warden when I took over the chief job, so I was doing dual purpose."

When Gill took over, the Sundance department was facing budget issues and hadn't been pursuing much in the way of grant funding. It was also staffed mainly by young volunteers – and not really enough of them – for whom training had been limited.

There were six volunteers left when Gill took over.

"Pretty soon, I was the lone one," he says. "But I had people lined up who were certified that had quit."

He got to work right away.

"We hit the grant funding pretty heavy," he says. Since that time, Gill has regularly brought in grant funding to update the department's equipment and bolster its budget.

Training was another priority. Today, all but the newest volunteers have their structure firefighting certi-fication.

"Safety's an easy factor then. When you have people who aren't certified, you've really got to watch them," he says. "I've always been a stickler on safety, I don't want anybody hurt."

The importance of safety is a lesson Gill learned personally at a house fire that took place in the 1980s.

"We'd been on it from 10 o'clock at night and it was four in the morning and 20 below zero," he recalls. "It was brutal. We were finally just finishing putting it out when we had a wall explode."

Gill and his back-up man were spraying the wall when it happened. Suddenly, there was a boom, and a piece of 2x4 hit Gill's helmet, right between the eyes.

"It cracked my helmet, gave me a concussion and knocked me out colder than a wedge," he says. His partner's glasses were sand-blasted and Gill let go of the hose, which flipped and went down his jacket.

"It didn't wake me up. The ambulance crew was right there and they beat feet over and got the hose out," he says.

It turned out that the walls of the original building, which was over a hundred years old and had been expanded multiple times, were home to two quart mason jars of black powder.

Gill remembers feeling like the EMTs were wrong that he needed to go to the hospital – but they insisted. Two fellow firefighters fetched his wife and they headed for Rapid City.

"EMS was actually filming when that happened, and we used it for training for quite a while," he says.

"I put my poor bride through a lot. She's really proud that I'm retiring – again."

As well as safety procedures, the Sundance department now has a strong standard operating proce-dure, 14 volunteers and a likely cadet within the next couple of months. That's a decent number, Gill says.

"We don't have the volunteerism any more because life is so busy. The ones I've got now, I just cherish every one of them," he says.

He's quick to praise the quality of the people who now staff the department.

"There isn't anybody down there right now that I wouldn't want to be my back-up man on the hose, and that's huge," he says.

Gill's love for firefighting has never faded. It's been a passion for him, he says.

"When I was a kid, I stayed with my granddad at the ranch and we fought lightning strike fires from the time I was five," he says.

His older brother joined the fire department when Gill was a senior and suggested he take an EMT class.

Gill was in sports and studying, but he agreed to do it if it fit with his schedule.

"I was a cadet at Moorcroft till I turned 18," he says. "It kind of blossomed from there. I was an EMT for probably six years until I got tired of that – but I loved the fire."

When he moved to Sundance, he says, "The old guard grabbed me by the ear and drug me in – and the rest is really history."

It was a bucket of water and a gunny sack back when he was a kid, he says. Today's firefighting is a whole different story; there are more fires today, he says, partly due to the growth this county has seen.

Today, the department works alongside the county, federal departments and nearby counties alike, in a spirit of cooperation that, when it began, was unique.

"When I first came over here, we didn't have any agreement whatsoever with the Forest Service – and that bothered me really bad, because they didn't have anybody here in the fire crew for night," he says.

"When the higher echelon of the fire department just dumped their water because the line was right over there, I was... a little upset, to say the least."

Gill already had a good relationship with the head ranger at the time, so the two worked together for about a year to come up with a plan.

"It was the only one in the United States at the time," he says. "He got it through the Forest Service end, the only thing we had to do was get guys red carded, which we were working on already."

On the other hand, there have been mutual aid agreements with surrounding counties as long as Gill can remember.

"The cooperation is phenomenal, and you keep that going by just keeping in touch with them," he says.

At a recent house fire, for instance, Gill called Weston County to ask if assistance might be available and was told a fully staffed engine, compressor trailer and two tenders were on the way.

"I was so thankful," he said.

Not only did they turn up, Gill says, the first thing they said was that he should relieve his firefighters, who had been on the fire for many hours by that point.

In 2016, when the Douglas and Kara Creek fires were fought, Gill called Campbell County to ask the same thing. Three tenders and two units were sent out right away.

Crook County's guys have spent many hours helping in return – everyone knows, Gill says, that the counties have each others' back. "It all comes back," he says.

It's this camaraderie and cooperation that Gill loved the most about fighting fires.

"I'm very grateful for the time that I spent. I made a lot of friends throughout the state," he says.

Still, it's time, he says.

"I missed a lot of important dates in my 52 years, but my wife and my kids supported me. There were a couple of Thanksgivings I wasn't there – probably more than a couple," he says.

"Like I told the guys, it's time for the young guys to step up – newer thoughts," he says.

And he's happy with leaving things as they stand, with the department now overseen by Curt William-son and staffed by his 14 volunteers.

"They're just a great bunch of guys. We've got some of the best firefighters in the state right here in the county," he says.

"I feel really good about stepping back, e've got young guys coming up who have leadership quality. With the way we have things set up, the fire department is going to be very good for a long time."