The Eagle Fire Department is currently a predominantly volunteer fire department providing primary fire protection and emergency medical services to a 36 square mile area encompassing both the Town and Village of Eagle. The Town of Eagle supports the lion’s share of the fire department budget (75.1%) while the Village of Eagle supports the remainder.

Let’s explore the Eagle Fire Department’s past, present, and future.

Humble Beginnings

The Eagle Fire Department was organized in 1927 as a 100% volunteer fire department. In those days, able-bodied men who were willing to serve their community were elected to the department by a vote. Most of the volunteers of that time worked within the community or were farmers who could leave for emergency calls.

Due to the small population of Eagle at the time, emergency calls were few and far between.

An interesting fact – monthly fire department business meetings were conducted and members who were absent were fined $.25 unless they had a “reasonable excuse” for not being there!

When the fire department was first conceptualized, firefighters only responded to put out fires. Emergency Medical Services were not added until approximately 1978. Today, the fire department responds to over 340 calls each year including structure fires, wildland fires, automobile crashes, while also providing emergency medical services, and any other assistance calls received from the community.

Current Trends

During the 1970’s and 1980’s there was often a waiting list to join the local department as a volunteer! Now, departments including Eagle, have to aggressively recruit members. The increased demands of life including two income households, commuting, kids’ sports, and increased entertainment options are leaving less and less time to spend away from the family to attend to fire department operations.

It is important to mention that of the 35 members of the Eagle Fire Department, 60% of the volunteers have been with the department for greater than 5 years with one member having accumulated 40 years of service to the community!

Current Department Profile

Fast forward to today’s fire department, and you will find that many things have changed since the department’s inception 81 years ago! Most of the volunteers now work outside of the community during the day and therefore are unable to respond to emergencies.

This trend left the department’s daytime staffing levels critically low. To combat this problem, in October of 2004 the Eagle Fire Commission approved the hiring of part-time paid personnel to physically staff the fire station for 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday. The theory behind this was that while the majority of the volunteers were at work, someone would be able to respond to emergency calls within the district.

In 2006 the first full-time fire chief was hired to meet the department’s growing administrative needs. In early 2008, current Fire Chief Justin Heim was hired from South Bend, Indiana to lead the department.

What It Takes

Many people often think that becoming a volunteer firefighter or EMT is easy. It isn’t. Federal and state laws and standards mandate the number of hours a person must train to become a firefighter or EMT.

New Eagle firefighters must attend 96-hours worth of Firefighter I training through the Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) where they receive education in firefighting principles, tactics, and most importantly: safety. To successfully receive a certification from the State of Wisconsin, students must pass a written and practical examination.

Eagle Emergency Medical Technician’s (EMT’s) must attend over 100-hours of Basic Emergency Medical Technician training through WCTC. In this course, students learn the basics of taking care of sick and injured patient’s including: CPR, lifting and moving, wound care, bandaging, and airway and breathing management.

After new volunteers complete their initial training there are also monthly departmental events (3-4 hours in length each) including vehicle maintenance, business meetings, fire and EMS trainings, and other special events that may arise.

The meetings and trainings are in addition to any emergency calls that are received each week! Not too many people are fond of running out the door during dinner or at 3:00 a.m. for a motor vehicle crash, but volunteer firefighters and EMT’s do it every day for no compensation.

Most emergency calls last between one and four hours long, while some can last much longer than that such as a large structure fire.

Many volunteer firefighters and EMT’s are contributing at least 20-30 hours of time to the department each month. This is time spent away from their families to help the community for, currently, no pay.