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The Privelge & The Pride

Posted April 20, 2010 11:00 pm

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[It's never the the front room of a burning house that gets a fireman. It¹s

always the room behind that room. You can't hear. You can't see. You knocked down what you could of the fire when you went in and the rest becomes a measured risk.

For Brett Crain, 53,--Du Quoin¹s retiring fire chief-- the risk has always

paled by the privilege. Five generations in his family have served this city at all levels. Great grandfather E.O. Crain was a city alderman. Grandfather "Ick" Crain was a city street commissioner in the early 1960s. His father, George "Buddy" Crain was a law enforcement officer.

The next generation includes son Jordan Crain, a fulltime fireman since June 2009 and son Nathan Crain who is both a fulltime teacher and a volunteer fireman since 2003. Wife Denise Crain is assistant vice-president of the Du Quoin State Bank.

Crain had good teachers, his longtime shift partner and assistant fire chief Don Brayfield--since retired--and the late Richard Fronek, fire chief. Fronek knew the department would be solid under incoming chief Brett Crain, and the retiring chief has told the council and the mayor they can expect no less from Fire Chief Bob Shaw.

He points to the depth and knowledge that fellow firefighters Bob Shaw, Rick Loyd, John VanVoorhis, Dave Durkota, Adam Hill and Jordan Crain bring to the department. All are rugged and think fast on their fight.

None benefit from Crain's gravel voice that makes you pay attention.

His service that began on January 17, 1985 under Mayor Robert Armstrong ends today. He came into public service after the closing of the Burning Star No. 3 Schuline mine in 1982 where he worked as a welder and heavy equipment operator. At the time he scored No. 1 among firefighters being tested under the merit system for fitness, academic scoring and his conduct during the oral interview. "I took Ray Pelczynski's place in the department when Ray retired," he remembers.

He shares the credit for giving homeowners and business owners in Du Quoin the best Insurance Service Office (ISO) rating in the town's history with the administration, council, the street and water departments and his own men. He took the rating from a Class 7 down to a Class 4 and like golf, the lower the score the better. That rating is the envy of towns Du Quoin¹s size and to revert to a volunteer department in any form or fashion would turn homeowner premiums into a train wreck.

"Our rating is based on our equipment, on our training, on our response time, being dispatched through a 911 system and the water supplies in our neighborhoods," he said. Crain worked alongside all of the city departments to test and retest hydrants,and replace dysfunctional hydrants. "I almost know each hydrant and who it was manufactured by," he said.

Relatively recent acquisitions of a LaVerne aerial ladder truck and a

Crimson, Inc. pumper assure the future of that rating. "With General Cable, the high rises, the aging downtown buildings and the buildings at the fairgrounds we have to have this equipment" he said. "Sometime we need to put our 1989 FMC down at station No.2 and replace it," he said.

He said the 1990 Du Quoin Packing Co. fire was the largest and most

frustrating of his career. Firemen were on the cusp of saving it, but fallen electrical lines and stairwells filling up with fire made it impossible. Others he remembers include the racquetball club fire, the Virgie Leach and Paul Miller homes, the downtown Main Street T's fire and the fire in Tommy Black's bowhunting shop next to city hall. But, there have been dozens.

And, he will remember Du Quoin's children--hundreds of them who rode in the old 1955 open cab fire truck (you can¹t do that now for insurance reasons)--all who believe the town¹s firemen are heroes--and they are.

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