LONG-TIME FIREMAN RETIRES AFTER 33 YEARS; SCHAEFER EARNS THE RECORD AS MECHANIC OF FIRE DEPARTMENT

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Fire department mechanic Carrol A. Schaefer retired Friday with the distinction of having served longer than any other mechanic of the department since it was mechanized in 1916.

Schaefer, 63, has been the department's mechanic for 27 of the 33 years he has been employed with the fire department.

The fire department has only had five mechanics since Henry "Heini" Miesner became the first mechanic in December 1948.

Prior to that, said Fire Chief Gene Hindman, all major repair work on the fire trucks was done by a mechanic at the then-Harris Motor Car Co., a company that was located in the 200 block of Broadway.

Miesner, who retired in April 1958, was a fire department mechanic for 10 years. He was followed by Jack Kellogg, who held the job for five years, and by Charles Mize, who handled the duties for eight months. Orville Warner held the job for three years before retiring in October 1965, at which time Schaefer was appointed to the position.

When he was hired as a firefighter in April 1958, Schaefer said he never considered working as a fire department mechanic.

"When Orville Warner was getting ready to retire in 1965, the fire chief, who was Carl Lewis, asked me if I would be interested in the position," he said. "I thought about it a couple days and said yes."

Although the mechanic's pay was equal to that of an assistant chief, Schaefer was on call around-the-clock, seven-days-a-week to respond with fire crews to fires.

"There were a lot of nights that I went out with a fire crew and worked all night, then went home, took a shower, and came back to work the next day," he recalled.

That policy was discontinued in 1985 by Fire Chief Gene Hindman when the department finally got enough manpower to respond to first-alarm fire calls without the mechanic.

But Schaefer continued to respond to all major and second-alarm fires, where he kept an eye on the fire trucks, assisted in sorting and refilling the air tanks, and transported fire hose back to the fire station after the fires for cleaning and drying.

Schaefer said his duties as a mechanic included a "little bit of everything." Until the fire department began converting over to diesel-powered, automatic transmission fire engines, Schaefer did just about all of the repair work, except for major overhauls.

Now most of the engine and transmission repairs and maintenance work are done either at the city garage, or by a local truck dealer. However, the department mechanic still handles the minor engine maintenance work, oil changes and lubrication.

Schaefer spent a lot of time keeping the pumps and accessories on the fire engines in operating order.

He said Cape Girardeau water is hard on tank valves, pump bearings and seals because it has a high mineral content that causes deposits to accumulate inside the pumps, rubber seals and gaskets. Just getting to the valves and gaskets on some of the fire trucks was a major task that often took most of the day to do, he said.

Schaefer also stayed busy keeping the electrical systems on the fire engines in good order. "The manufacturers tried to put too much on one electrical circuit, so we were always having problems with the headlights and windshield wipers going out on the fire trucks," he said. Eventually, he wound up rewiring some of the circuits.

But Schaefer said that one of his biggest challenges over the last 10 years was locating spare parts for some of the older fire engines still in use, particularly the American LaFrance models that were purchased in the mid-1960s.

With parts for these fire engines no longer being made by the manufacturer, Schaefer often spent time calling St. Louis, Memphis, and other cities to try to find spare parts.

"I got to be a very familiar voice to a lot of the places I called," he said.

The old, aerial ladder truck that was replaced by the new platform ladder truck was a special challenge to Schaefer. Before the old aerial ladder fire engine was replaced, he had to resort to making spare parts for the ladder truck in the fire department shop, or having them made at a local machine shop.

In addition to his work on the fire engines, Schaefer also repaired hose nozzles, which are also highly susceptible to minerals in the water.

Schaefer was born and raised, along with his three brothers and one sister, in the tiny community of Wolf Lake, Ill. He joined the Navy, and served as a boiler tender aboard ship during the Korean War.

After his discharge, Schaefer returned home to farm with one of his brothers.

Schaefer liked to roller-skate at the old Mary Ann Roller Rink on West Broadway in Cape Girardeau. That's where he met Aileen Voges.

Two years after they were married, the Schaefers moved to Cape Girardeau where he went to work with his father-in-law at the old American White Cross plant on the city's south side.

Four years later, he was hired as a city firefighter.

Schaefer's last day at work was Friday, and was marked by a brief ceremony at Fire Station Number Two. Both on- and off-duty firefighters from the four fire stations stopped by to say goodbye.

Schaefer said he's looking forward to not having to answer fire calls all hours of the day and night, although he does admit he'll miss the firefighters he's worked with for 33 years.

"I've got a garden. I might buy a fishing pole. And I've got a woodworking shop in my basement, so I should be able to stay pretty busy," he said.