Tigerton Fire Department volunteers not only fight fires, but also keep the equipment in fine condition and continue their training throughout the year.
Each volunteer has to have 120 hours of training.
“That’s the least they can do to be a fireman,” said Jack Mauritz, who has been the fire chief for five years. “We do in-house training every month.”
Some volunteers also advanced training in areas such as hazardous materials and diving.
The 20 volunteers, ranging in age from 30s to 70s, meet monthly at the fire hall. Chuck Sambs has been with the department the longest, volunteering since 1966.
“We have very loyal guys and they are good to work with,” Mauritz said. “We’re always looking for a few more.”
The village has six trucks — a 1950 fire truck, an equipment van, two pumpers, a tanker and a mini pumper.
Volunteers take the trucks out every Sunday morning for a complete maintenance check to be sure everything is ready to go. The village pays for any maintenance of the vehicles that can’t be done by the volunteers.
The department’s coverage area includes the village of Tigerton and the towns of Germania and Fairbanks, plus parts of the towns of Wyoming and Morris.
Tigerton also has mutual-aid agreements with Wittenberg, Bowler, Birnamwood and the town of Grant.
The calls, handled by dispatchers in Shawano, go directly to the pagers or radios of the department’s volunteers.
“I’m usually the first one at the station,” said Mauritz, who lives a block away from the station.
Any volunteers who show up go along on the call.
The number of calls the department handles varies from year to year.
“Some years, we have a lot of grass fires,” Mauritz said.
Mauritz said the most difficult calls for the firefighters is when there is loss of life.
To get items for the department, the firefighters conduct a gun raffle the day after Thanksgiving.
“We raise quite a bit of money to buy things for the fire hall,” Mauritz said.
They have purchased things such as a laptop computer and a television for training videos.
Dean Lehman is the assistant fire chief.
For more information, call Mauritz at 715-535-2969 or Jeff Ortner at 715-535-2262.
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