Copyright 2006 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.
Dayton Daily News (Ohio)
For Tom Wallace, the way to fire was by way of water. “I was in the Navy,” he explains, “on a tanker. One of those big babies that blow up easy.”
One of the responsibilities Wallace picked up was firefighting. He didn’t know it then, but it would become his lifelong profession.
Before the stint in the Navy, Wallace thought he was destined for farming. He took an agriculture course at a technical college.
“I kind of gave up on the farm,” he said.
Home from the Navy, a friend asked, “Hey, why don’t you get on at the fire department?”
Wallace didn’t see any future to the idea at first. “I said ‘I’ll think about it’ and lo and behold, that’s how it started.”
That was 36 years ago. In 1978, Wallace took over the position he still holds, fire chief with the Farmersville Fire Association. “When I became chief, we had no EMS service in Farmersville,” Wallace said. It was something he soon corrected.
“I begged people for money,” he said.
The reason was two-fold. In the earlier years, trips to the hospital were typically “in the back of a hearse,” and the need for medical transportation was complicated by the greater distances those in Farmersville had to travel to hospitals.
“We bought an old medic off of New Lebanon,” Wallace said. The EMS service grew from a “first responder” unit, eventually gaining paramedics. The EMT staff now numbers 17.
“We definitely need people around in the daytime,” Wallace said.
Both EMT and fire service are close to Wallace’s heart. He works 24/7 because “I love helping people.” People love the service Wallace and his staff provide.
Tom Tully Jr., a Jackson Twp. resident, remembers when his daughter was in an car accident six years ago.
“She said as soon as she heard Tom’s voice, she knew she would be out of the car,” Tully said. “If I would get hurt or get sick, I sure hope I’m home and Tom’s on duty.”
Wallace, 59, and his wife of 37 years, Sherry, live in Farmersville. Their son, Scott, is a maintenance inspector in Moraine, an instructor at Sinclair Community College and, of course, a volunteer with the FFA.
A new fire station is one of those works in progress. Replacing old equipment, Wallace said, will only make sense in a building big enough to hold it.
Wallace is payroll supervisor, check writer, tax preparer and fund raiser.
Wallace remembers the early days when there was only one set of “turnout gear” — the outfit worn by firefighters — for two men.
“Whoever got there first got it,” he laughed.