Four men, 151 years of experience: There's a brotherhood of longtime firefighters in Dexter

Editor's note: This story originally appeared in the Dexter Daily Statesman newspaper.

DEXTER, Mo. -- If experience translates into quality, then the Dexter Fire Department is one quality outfit.

The local fire department has 28 members, only three of whom are full-time employees. One is a part-time employee. In total, the roster represents nearly 400 years of experience. More impressive, however, is that just four members of the department -- Fire Chief Don Seymore among them -- represent 151 of those years.

Having the longest history with the department is Captain Dale Rowe, who signed on as a volunteer when he was 18 years old and married just three months. There was one fire station that consisted of a small block building near the city's train depot, and two fire trucks made up the fleet.

"We really did used to ride on the back of the truck to get to the fires, too. I rode all the way to Essex one time," Rowe recalls. He is entering his 44th year as a firefighter.

Not far behind Dale Rowe in tenure is his twin brother, Dave, now serving as assistant fire chief. He has 36 years on the department, including 26 as a full-time employee.

With 37 years, behind him is Captain John Jenkins, and Seymore, who is beginning his third year as chief, has spent 35 years on the Dexter Fire Department.

Jenkins recalls that at the downtown station when he began as a firefighter, there was a siren on a pole, and there was a call system through the police dispatcher that notified firemen of a fire.

"Later we got CBs, but back then we'd either call dispatch to see where the fire was, or we'd just drive to the station. A lot of times, you could go to the station and just follow the water trail," laughs Jenkins. "We've all done that."

The four, along with the rest of the department, have been "on call" with boots by their beds for most of their lives.

"We've been called away from a lot of birthday parties and family gatherings," says Jenkins, and the others agree.

"My wife refused to let me bring my pager to our wedding," the chief laughs.

Seymore remembers when the foursome represented the "younger generation" on the crew.

"We were the ones always going for training and bringing back new methods to fight fires and new technology that wasn't always readily adopted. We had to prove ourselves more than once," he says.

Training, the four agree, has been the key ingredient that has sustained the department's reputation as a solid and cohesive response team whose members make up more than just a department.

Housed in Columbia, Missouri, is the Fire and Rescue Training Institute, from which most of the department's training derives.

"We used to have to travel to Columbia to receive special training," says Dave Rowe. "We're fortunate now in that most often now the instructors come to us, and training is conducted right here in Dexter."

Much has changed about the methodology of firefighting over the four decades and more that the Rowe twins, Seymore and Jenkins have served.

"Homes and other structures aren't built the way they used to be built," Seymore explains. "A fire doesn't burn like it used to. Today we have concerns with toxins and other dangers that weren't even heard of when we started. There are a lot of things you have to know about the potential spread of the fire and the dangers that exist within specific structures, and that's why continual training is so vital."

Firefighting equipment acquired over the years has been equally as vital to the department.

"When we started," recalls Jenkins, "we used to enter a burning structure and just hold our breath 'til we couldn't hold it anymore and run out for air. When we got breathing apparatus, it changed everything."

Firefighters not only receive continual training with regard to new firefighting techniques and equipment, but also in applications for rescue and extrication.

"That's my special interest," says Seymore, who admits to being drawn to the department's extrication team as a young man.

"When the extrication team started," Jenkins explains, "it mostly consisted of guys who worked in the automotive field -- who knew mechanics -- because it involved rescuing people from vehicles."

The team was established in the early 1980s with a handful of interested firefighting personnel and a used bread truck that was transformed into the department's first rescue unit.

Today, that unit is a well-oiled machine that regularly is trained in every aspect of vehicle rescue. They are often called upon by neighboring departments for assistance and have gained the respect of units across Southeast Missouri for their expertise in emergency extrication and rescue.

As imperative to the department as its training and equipment is the camaraderie among its personnel. Within the department there seems to exist a "brotherhood" -- a special bond that is evident both on and off duty -- often interjected with humor, but always with the assurance that they have each other's backs at all times.

"You've got to have people you can trust, and we all have to work together," Seymore notes. "We have a younger generation of firefighters, and then another group that's more established, and then this group of senior members that somehow I'm now a part of. There's an overall respect for each other in all we do that might sometimes be unspoken, but we each know it exists. If it didn't, we wouldn't be the department that we've become over the years."