Title
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
Denny Vander Wel joined the fire department in 1974 and had been Fire Chief for over 20 years when he was interviewed in 2022. He remembers as a kid riding his bike to watch the Vogel Paint Factory burn in 1964, and fighting his first big fire with Don Schreur on the nozzle in downtown Alton with chemical barrels exploding around them. In addition to recalling several notable fires, he reflects on the changes the fire service and the OCFD has seen and on the nature of fire and firefighting: "I’ve said it in many classes over the years, that fire is just like us: it’s a living breathing thing. It needs the oxygen or air to survive....It almost hypnotizes you, watching it. And it’s something. You know. Very destructive. And it’s there, like a dragon, it wants to consume you....Having that nozzle in your hand and going after, if you want to call it, “the beast” and taking control of it, you know, that's the cool thing. Being the fire chief, that’s, that’s, that’s thinking work out there. I mean. Being right there with it and extinguishing, that’s where it’s at."