Family of firefighters serves Mead

You might say Don Coyle launched a tradition when he joined the Mead Volunteer Fire Department in 1948.

Now, four generations of his family have served the fire department, including a grandson who is its fire chief. Family members say they enjoy helping others — even if it means braving harsh winter weather to assist stranded travelers.

Coyle moved to Mead in 1947 and opened a grocery store called Coyle’s Market. It wasn’t long before he joined the fire department.

“Back then, they just had a couple of trucks and that was about it,” said his daughter, Aileen Raver of Mead.

In 1957, Raver’s husband, Don, joined the fire department. When they’re oldest son, Ron, turned 18, he joined, too, even though he was still in high school.

“He was so enthusiastic about it,” Aileen Raver said.

School officials allowed him to make calls even when classes were in session — something he did a few times before he graduated.

“He eventually became an EMT (emergency medical technician) and rescue squad captain and served 16 years before he moved out of our district to a farm,” Aileen said.

The Ravers’ son, Larry, was a volunteer firefighter for a few years as well.

In 1985, Aileen became a member of the department and an EMT. At age 74, she’s started her 25th year with the department.

Aileen noted the department has several members now and she only goes out if needed — which can happen during the daytime when volunteers are at work and not available — a common scenario in small towns these days.

But most of Aileen’s duties involve organizing fire department activities such as a Halloween party or Santa Claus Day for children. During Santa Claus Day, firefighters visit the elementary school with Christmas bags. She also completes bookwork for the department, pays bills and even cooks food for department meetings which take place 12 times a year. With help from others in the department, she organizes and prepares an awards dinner which takes place in the spring.

The Ravers’ grandson, Nick, has been with the fire department for 10 years. Today, the 28-year-old man serves as firefighter and secretary.

Aileen’s nephew, Mike Coyle, has served the department for 13 years — the last three as fire chief.

“You get pretty good satisfaction out of helping people,” he said.

Perhaps one of the most rewarding comes from helping stranded travelers in the winter. Many are elderly people whose vehicles have gone into a ditch.

“We helped quite a few of them last winter,” he said.

One man and his wife were stranded in a ditch north of town. Firefighters pulled the car from the ditch. Coyle drove the couple’s vehicle to Fremont while other firefighters followed in the firetruck.

Coyle said he believes the two were trying to reach their home in South Dakota. The couple, who were in their 70s, stayed in a Fremont motel before setting out the next day when roads were better.

“They sent us a two-page letter a week later, thanking us,” he said. “It’s stuff like that that makes it all worthwhile.”

Aileen Raver also recalls heading out years ago in the middle of the night to an accident scene where a vehicle had overturned and a person was trapped inside.

“It was very cold and windy,” she recalled.

Enough volunteers had showed up to lift the car and get the person out. As it turned out, the individual wasn’t seriously injured.

“My biggest memory is that just about everybody on the department showed up, because they’d said someone was trapped in a vehicle and it was overturned,” she said.

Aileen’s saddest memory was the time several years ago when she went out to a vehicle accident to find that her sister’s in-laws had been killed.

But she also recalls attending a convention where a woman who’d been on call went to the scene of a fatal car accident only to learn that the victim was her own teenage daughter.

“That’s got to be really tough,” she said.

Yet it’s something that people who serve in smaller communities face.

“When you get called out, you don’t know what it’s going to be or how bad it could be or if it’s somebody you know and are close to,” she said.

Volunteers remain committed to their service and community. Those who’ve served Mead’s department have been very dedicated. They get along and communicate well, Aileen said.

Aileen may someday see her volunteer fire department days come to an end.

“I’m getting to the age where I’m going to have to retire one of these times. Maybe, I’ll do another year,” she said. “I don’t think there are too many people my age on the fire department.”

But after retirement, she still may find ways to serve.

“I’d help them out in other ways if they needed it,” she said.