By Payton Felix
Daily Gazette
ERIE, Ill. — The Erie Fire Protection District has expanded its ambulance services over the years and one volunteer has seen it all.
Advanced Emergency Medical Technician Jeff Wirth joined the department 48 years ago, on July 1, 1977, because “they were looking for people on the ambulance service” that “had only been running since the fall of 1976,” Wirth said.
“We have a good relationship between fire and ambulance. I enjoy doing it. That’s why I’ve been there that long,” Wirth said.
Wirth said the one call that sticks out to him the most is a house fire in 1979.
“The Bealer fire. They always called it,” he said. “I was a new EMT at that time, just graduated.”
In December that year, a fire erupted at 1003 Main St. in Erie, killing four members of the Bealer family — Warren E. Bealer Jr, 38; Patricia Bealer, 36; Elizabeth Bealer, 13; and Bernard Bealer, 5. The fifth member, Warren Bealer III, 15, survived but was badly burned, according to newspaper records.
The parents, Warren and Patricia, were at a Christmas party set up at their work, came home and died in the fire, Wirth said.
Firefighters that day used four water hoses to fight the flames and had to crawl on the floor wearing respirators to find the Bealers because the house was filled with smoke, according to newspaper records.
Being on the frontlines of those types of tragedies, “you ‘just suck it up, buttercup’ because somebody’s got to do it and you do it,” Wirth said.
“The biggest thing that I always have a hard time with is dealing with kids, because I had kids at home. So I would go home and hug my kids after a call with a young child,” he said.
Since then, the ambulance service has undergone a lot of changes.
“We went from basic to first aid to EMTs and then advanced EMTs and now we’ve got paramedics,” Wirth said.
Now the service has paid paramedics that are on 24 hours a day, Wirth said.
“You can never go backwards, you always want to go up,” he said of working to become a better service. “You can’t go from paramedic back down to a lower service.”
People in Erie expect that higher level of service, Wirth said. “They all praise us for the kind of service that we give them.”
To keep it up, they have to keep bringing on new people, he said.
The fire department side has “a waiting list most of the time,” and the ambulance service has “good numbers. It’s just that we’re always looking for more,” Wirth said.
For information, contact the Erie Fire Protection District at 309-659-2000.
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