Laying it all on the line

Jefferson City firefighter retires after 42-year career

Jefferson City Firefighter Lonnie Brandt poses at Fire Station No. 1. Brandt is retiring in May after a 42-year career with the department.
Jefferson City Firefighter Lonnie Brandt poses at Fire Station No. 1. Brandt is retiring in May after a 42-year career with the department.

When the Jefferson City Fire Department expanded to three shifts in 1973, Lonnie Brandt was among the new members to come on board.

After more than 42 years with the department, Brandt will retire in May.

Brandt is a second-generation Jefferson City firefighter. His father, Paul, served from 1962 to 1996 and retired as a captain.

"He's the reason for me being here," Brandt said. "There was no way my dad was going to let me be a bad employee."

Although he had seen his dad doing this work, Brandt said he really had not planned on becoming a firefighter.

"I was going to school at Lincoln University, and I just wanted to do something different," he said. "Looking back, I have no idea what I would have done without this job. I can't imagine being in a better place."

During his time on the job, Brandt said the fire at the First Baptist Church in 1987 was one of the biggest he had to help fight.

"It was more than what we had resources to fight it with," he said.

The call that sticks with Brandt the most, though, was a crash involving a car and a train near the Prison Farm more than 20 years ago. A woman and two children in the car were killed.

Brandt said equipment has vastly improved over the time he has been on the service. The department has new trucks that have been outfitted with computers to help track personnel while on the scene of the fire to make sure they are safe.

"A few years ago, where West Main and West High streets come together, a building came down," he said. "I was the incident commander at that fire, and it came down unexpectedly. We had guys inside, and in my 42 years I've been here, that was the closest to losing lives, because if they had stayed where they were, waited 10 more seconds to move, I don't know if they'd be around now. That has driven us to work and train to make sure we have crews ready to get our guys out if we need to or learn how to self-extricate themselves if they need to."

Brandt said there's a difference in the people coming into the department.

"When I first came, it was exw-military and high school graduates," he said. "Now, we've got people who have gone to college and other training because they see this as their career."

Brandt talked about some misconceptions he thinks people might have about the job of a firefighter.

"We don't just sit around all day waiting to be called," Brandt said. "There's five stations that have to be cleaned and maintained along with the equipment that's housed in them. We do some type of training every day. When we added going out on medical calls, we went from around 1,000 calls a year to now we average 4,400 to 4,500 calls for service."

"Firefighters are a pretty tight group," Brandt added. "We work together for 24 hours at a time, so you get to know about guys' lives and families. You get to know their kids when they come to visit on birthdays and other occasions."

After 42 years, Brandt said the one thing that hasn't changed is the commitment of the members of the Fire Department to the residents.

"Sometimes it goes under-appreciated or under-known by the public and people at city hall, and we have guys who would lay it all on the line for this department," he said.