By: Mario Gomez
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
A career that began in a volunteer position 34 years ago will reach its apex for Archbold Fire Chief Dave Davis.
The veteran firefighter will get his last call from active duty on Sept. 30 when he retires from the Archbold Fire Department.
Starting in the department as a volunteer firefighter in January 1992, Davis worked his way up the ladder where he would become a lieutenant, an assistant fire chief and finally his current position as fire chief of the department. “I’m not perfect,” said Davis.
“The 10 years haven’t been perfect. We’ve had some ups and downs, but I hope I’ve done a good enough job that it was at least equal to when I took over.
“It’s amazing how fast and where the time went. It’s hard to believe it’s been 34 years.”
FOLLOWING ADA TO THE FIREHOUSE
It was a career that started thanks in part to his partner of 36 years, his wife, Ada, who has been on the department since 1990 and will be retiring a month before Davis.
With his wife on the department, it became normal for her to come home and talk about the fire calls and events that she was involved in, and it began to pique his interest.
“I had people at different times that were on the department ask me to join. At the time I just never thought I had the time.”
LEARNING THE JOB
His position as a volunteer firefighter started with testing, but Davis admits that the testing he did was nothing compared to what recruits are put through today.
He completed a basic firefighter course and a basic Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course to become a member of the department.
“It was a lot easier a process. The requirements on the EMT side were pretty much the same.
“On the firefighter side, a firefighter one is a minimum requirement and that’s 160 hours. Back then it was a 36-hour firefighter course.
“It was hands on, but the testing was done on old-school paper. Nothing was on computer at the time.
“Now it takes recruits anywhere from a year to a couple years to get their certification.”
Davis had all of his certifications taken care of in eight months and made his first house fire shortly thereafter. “I don’t know what my expectations were.
“The fire was down in a basement and I hadn’t been out of class very long and I remember going down in the basement with Dan Yoder and we couldn’t see a thing but we could feel the heat.
“I’m crawling in this basement thinking, ‘What did I get myself into? This is crazy.’”
FAITH THROUGH THE HARD CALLS
The job came with its share of good and bad times, as anyone working in the first responder position could attest to.
It was something that even Davis admitted was sometimes difficult to work around, but it was his faith and service to God that saw him through even the toughest times.
“It’s devastating to see what happens when people have fires that hit their homes, but it’s somewhat rewarding when we have done some saves throughout the years.
“As you experience things, at least through my perspective, I got very good at compartmentalizing things that I’d seen and the things I was exposed to.
“My faith helped out a lot. I pray for this department every day.”
It did not hurt to have someone he shared a home with and worked with on the department to come home to and talk about whatever was on their minds.
“It helps out to have a spouse who has experienced the same things that you can go home and talk about it with.
“I don’t think we could have gotten through some of the things we did if we wouldn’t have had each other. She’s good about steering me straight.”
FROM GROCERY AISLES TO THE FIREHOUSE
Service to his community has always been in the background for Davis. Davis started his “service” career in high school when he started working at Jim and Dale’s IGA.
Starting his junior year in high school, Davis remained in the business after graduating from Archbold High School.
“I was never one to think about going to college at the time, so I just stayed there.” It became a job that shaped his life and his future.
After being with the store for nearly 16 years, Davis was given the opportunity to take over ownership of the business and operated as Dave’s IGA.
In the final eight years of ownership, the landscape of small-business grocery stores took a big hit financially, and Davis made the tough decision to close the store he had been associated with for 24 years.
“When we closed the store, we lost everything. At the time, for 24 years, all I’d done was work in a grocery store.
“We had four kids at home, and my daughter just had a baby.” Fate intervened when Davis was approached by members of the Archbold Area Schools maintenance team.
A position was about to come open and they urged him to apply. Davis was hired by the school as a custodian shortly after the closure of the store.
As employees came to the point of retirement, Davis worked his way up to becoming the head of maintenance in 2008.
It was a job he kept and loved until 2016, when the position of fire chief opened up after Andy Brodbeck announced his retirement.
When the position opened up, Davis had thoughts on whether to apply or not.
“I loved my job at the school. I loved the kids and being able to interact with them. I was there when my kids went through the system and I got to enjoy that part of it.
“They might not have thought so, but it was kind of neat seeing them every day.” In the end, the opportunity to retire earlier was the deciding factor in applying for and accepting the job as fire chief.
“In doing what I did in coming here with the retirement system setup, I’m going to retire this year at 64.
“If I stayed at the school, I wouldn’t have been able to retire until I was 70. That was the final deciding factor.”
STEPPING INTO THE CHIEF’S ROLE
Taking on a different role was challenging at the beginning of his new title. It was easy to become one of the members of the department and go right home after a call.
This new position changed all of that. “I have never had to worry about anything else.
“As a chief, you’re never off duty. I figured they were paying me to be in the position, and that position required me to show up to as many calls as I could. You never really can relax.”
GRATITUDE AND WHAT’S NEXT
As his time as chief comes to its conclusion, the list of people he wants to thank is far too big to recall, but he admits some big influences that helped him through his 34 years on the department.
“When I started out, guys like Doug Clark, Kenny Cowell, Lee Sauder and Graeme Lauber did an amazing job, and I’m thankful to have had them as my mentors.
“Even after he was gone, Andy Brodbeck was still OK with me calling him if I needed a sounding board for a question I had, and I’m thankful to him.”
When Davis retires, he will be done. He has no intention of sticking around at the department and admits it will take some getting used to not being around.
But he will not be completely gone from the fire training aspect. Davis will recertify for three more years and will help at the Bryan Fire Academy with fire classes and training.
When asked what he thought about what kind of legacy he leaves as fire chief, Davis says very humbly, “I don’t think it’s my place to say if I’ve been successful or not.
“I was given a department, and what I tried to do in the 10 years is to maintain the quality of equipment we have to train the people and keep everyone safe.
“Throughout the years, that’s been the biggest thing: make sure nobody gets hurt and everybody gets to go home.
“We’re not in it for the accolades. We’re in it to provide the service. We don’t need the spotlight. It takes a special person to do what we do.”
“I’m so happy to be able to work with the people I’ve worked with.” When Davis took the job as fire chief at Archbold, he received some advice from Jim Gamber, former fire chief at Wauseon.
“One piece of advice. Make a decision. Once you make that decision, don’t second-guess it. Don’t look back. Just move forward. That’s what I’ve tried to do.”
“I tell people I can’t do anything about what happened yesterday. I can only hope I learned from it, and it makes me a better person moving forward.”