05/12/2026
Okay here's the story, I've tried to make it as short as possible, but it's still really long and I’ve probably forgot somethings, I have omitted nothing on purpose:
Chapter 1 The Call
The Kiron Fire department was paged to a ditch fire on the far eastern border of our service area. I responded, as did my wife and one other member (I'll call him the driver from here out). I took the officers seat in the quick attack with the driver driving and my wife took the tanker. Upon reaching the intersection where the fire was reported, dispatch contacted us informing us that the fire was still a mile east from where we were dispatched to.
Now the fire is outside our service area, but I felt obligated to travel the extra mile to at least see if there is a fire.
Upon reaching the intersection of the next mile we are presented with 40 to 60 acres with about 10-15 fires going. Tree piles on fire, grassways, terraces, the ditch along the highway, it seemed like there was fire everywhere in that field fanned by the wind. The wind was out of the North at about 20-25mph. To the South of the field is a two lane highway and South of that is another field with a single family residence on the South end. There is no equipment around, no fire trucks, no tractors with disks, just one pickup with a small trailer in the field across the road.
Here is where a little back story belongs. A couple months ago we had a pretty large and fast moving field fire that covered about 3 square miles. We had almost every department in our county helping and a handful from surrounding counties, a bunch of farmers with disks and even the local COOPs brought water. That day I had to tell a homeowner to pack his important stuff in his car because there was a good chance he might lose his home in the fire. It was not a good day.
So when I was presented with this fire I feared another situation like I had just had the month before. I called dispatch on the radio, let them know the situation and asked for two more local departments. I took the firefighter position on the side of the truck (a basket type cage to stand in and operate the hose) and instructed the driver to head to the far North so we can get behind it and start putting it out. The tanker pulled into the field adjacent to keep the road clear for more responding units. We had extinguished one side of a grass way, a couple spot fires in the field and were lining up to hit the other side when a black pickup truck approached our unit at a high rate of speed, seemingly out of nowhere. The black truck pulled up to the driver's side and yelled something I couldn't hear because I was in the right hand side basket listening to the pump run. The black truck leaves and I notice there is an IBC tote in the back with what I assume is water in it. So I pound on the window and gesture to the driver to keep going. The last thing I want is to have this fire jump the highway. We get lined up and start up the other side of the grassway. Near the end of the grassway the black truck is back. This time he's blocking our fire truck and shouting at us. Since he's blocking our truck I get out and explain to him that we need to get this fire put out. I don't recall the exact exchange but he tries to convince me this is a controlled burn and we have to leave. I'm trying to explain to him that this does not appear to be controlled and I need to keep putting the fire out. The black truck drives off again.
Chapter 2 The Long Walk
After the second encounter with the black truck guy I told my driver to go up to the west side of the fire on the terrace in front of us so we can get that put out and head for the ditch. Unfortunately the driver got a little too close to the end of the grassway and suddenly forward movement stopped. I knew right away, we were stuck in the mud. I hopped out and told the driver not to fight it, that I would walk up to get the tanker and come back to pull him out. I did notice another fire unit on scene as I walked across the field to the road. I got to the road and talked to the crew in the fire truck, I explained that I thought it needed to be more controlled and asked them to go put out a tree pile looking fire on the South East corner. As I'm talking to the other fire crew the black truck is back telling me that I'm a bad person and that I should have stayed in California.
I walked across the road to the tanker and get a report from my wife that another person was here yelling at her to move the tanker and get out of here, but he’s gone now. Just as I get into the driver's seat of the tanker the second department shows up with a couple trucks, now my access to the field on fire is blocked by more fire apparatus. So there I sit. Then a guy from a department not involved at all was driving by and stopped to see if he could help. Fortunately he showed up when he did. He knew everyone and was able to get communication back on track, and found a local farmer to come pull the truck out of the mud for us. The tractor came, pulled the truck out and the two Kiron trucks headed back to the station together. And I thought that would be the end of it, boy was I wrong.
Chapter 3 The Letter
A few days later the department gets a thick envelope in the PO Box. It was a letter from the guy in the black truck. In this letter he has pictures of our stuck truck, a letter from the fire marshal saying that we were not in a burn ban and a letter with demands. The demands were that we needed to pay him $500 to repair the field, that the department needed to do an internal investigation or something and change the way we operated, and finally demanded an apology from the Chief (me).
I've been on the dept for 13 years and Chief for 6 years. I have never seen or even heard of something like this. I really had a hard time believing someone would go to these lengths to try to shame and get money from a volunteer fire department. I'm pretty sure at some point I told him to contact his insurance company for help with repairing the field. So I set the letter aside so we can bring it up at the monthly business meeting. In the meantime I happen to be at city hall and the clerk informs me she got the same letter, and a phone call demanding the letter be brought up and read at the next city council meeting. Our fire dept is not part of the city so this was kind of a shocker, but whatever.
So I had a short talk with the Mayor about it, who also happens to be on the fire department, and I talked to the driver on the call about it too. I figured we would discuss it at the fire meeting, all agree that it was pretty weird and move along.
Chapter 4 The End
So now it's the night of our business meeting, but first our EMS gets called out for possible DOA. A couple hours later we are back to the station and start our meeting just a little behind schedule. At the very end of the meeting there is a call for any other new business and the Asst. Chief (AC) wants to address the letter. He is of the opinion that the dept needs to pay the $500 and have me apologize to the farmer in the black truck. Apparently AC has talked to everyone involved and consulted other people on what we should do. Everyone except me or my wife, and I don’t think he talked to the driver. AC hasn't talked to me about it at all, he doesn't have my side and doesn't seem to want it. So as I started to make my case on why this is ridiculous I lead with the fact that under no circumstances will I be apologizing to the guy in the black truck. If the dept wants to pay him his $500 fine, I'm only one vote, but no one can force me to apologize for doing what I felt was the right thing to do. As I explained what I experienced that day and what I understood of Iowa code, more than once I stated that I would not apologize for it.
I made my case and the Asst. Chief makes a motion that I be suspended as chief from the department until I agree to apologize. The second is made by another member and a vote is called for. 3 yays and 2 nays, motion carried. Keep in mind there are 9 members present at this meeting so 4 people stayed silent. At this point I figured since I'm not chief anymore I should go to my shop around the corner and gather up as much of the chief stuff I have to give to AC now that I'm not Chief anymore. I returned to the meeting, handed the AC the login to the google account with all the dept info in it, set a box of radios and paperwork on the table and head out. I figured that since I'm just a regular firefighter now I'm under no obligation to finish attending the meeting. After my wife gets home I find that they had disagreed on the vote method and now the written vote was 5 against me and 3 for me, I didn't get to vote. Also in my absence they have clarified that along with being suspended as chief I am also suspended from performing any duties for the fire department.
I've been told that the 5 who voted against me had discussed it before the meeting. Now I'm permanently suspended, how is that? I did get a really professional looking letter from them though so there's that!
