January 20, 2014 at 3:43 p.m.
Town News: Pine Lake
Town News: Pine Lake
With that kind of history it's no surprise that three generations serve proudly on the Pine Lake Volunteer Fire Department. It's Norma (Bissonnette) Quandt who started this proud tradition by joining the fire brigade at Twist Drill. She can often be found at fire scenes with camera in hand documenting the action. Nearly 30 years ago, Tom Quandt Sr. joined the Pine Lake Fire Department. Over the last 30 years fire trucks have gone from standard transmission to automatic transmission, there's thermo-imaging equipment, and turnout gear is much improved. Tom spent many of his 30 years as a motor pump operator, earning firefighter of the year awards in 1988 and 1991.
In Ryan Larsen's mind, even before he was old enough to join the fire department, he was a firefighter. According to his grandma Norma and his mother Lynn, his clothes had to be red, his birthday cakes had to have a fire truck on them, and his bicycle had Pine Lake Fire Department on it. Upon learning of Ryan's interest in fire trucks, one of his teachers effectively used them to help him learn his lessons, so it's no surprise that Ryan now holds the rank of assistant fire chief and, like Grandpa Tom, has won firefighter of the year twice.
When Lynn Larsen moved back into the township she was looking for something to do, that was just the opening Ryan needed to recruit his mom. She soon started firefighter training. Lynn shared that during a training session she experienced a scenario where a firefighter goes down while clearing the house. The firefighter in question was her son, Ryan.
"Ryan had just helped me through a window and on to a ladder and when I came down I didn't see him," she said. "That's when over the (radio) it came that a firefighter was down. In that moment I was angry because it seemed like no one was doing anything. Later it was explained that most everyone would have been low on oxygen and an organized mission had to be implemented." That experience has made Lynn even more diligent in being sure the staging area is organized and the needed equipment is at hand since everyone who goes into a building is someone's child.
This family of firefighters takes great pride in their work.
Those interested in joining the fire department should visit www.pinelakefirerescue.com.
On this date:
1976- The Supersonic Concorde airplanes was put into service by Britain and France.
1980- Gold hits record $850 an ounce.
1994- Dow Jones passes 3900 (record 3914.20).
2003- The U.S. Census Bureau says Hispanics have moved past African-American as the largest minority group in the United States.
Contact Brian Moore at cmoore3@ charter.net to submit Pine Lake community information including birthdays, anniversaries, events etc.
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