Six firefighters have given lives to protect city

By Marissa Millender in The Wichita Falls Times Record News
Eighty years ago, two firefighters were killed fighting a fire at the Antlers Hotel. That day, Smiley Turner and Gano L. Anderson joined the one man who had passed before them in the line of duty with the Wichita Falls Fire Department.

The Fallen
Since then, three others — six total — have died.
– Andy E. Juliuson, March 23, 1929
When a fire alarm rang on March 23, 1925, Andy E. Juliuson sprang into action, as he had grown accustomed to in his three years with the department.

“He jumped aboard the department’s chemical truck to answer the alarm at the tailor shop,” reads a Times Record News article from 1957.

When he got to the fire, Juliuson ran toward the blaze and aimed a firehose. Then, a gasoline drum exploded and Juliuson was covered in flames. He survived through the night, but died the next day as a result of his burns.

– Smiley Turner and Gano L. Anderson, Dec. 12, 1929
Early on the morning of Dec. 12, 1929, the fire department went to the corner of Eleventh and Indiana to fight a blaze at the Antlers Hotel. Smiley Turner and Gano L. Anderson were among the many firefighters who jumped on trucks and headed to the battle.

Both men were manning a hose on the west side of the building when a wall collapsed, crushing the men beneath it. Turner had been with the department about 15 years and Anderson about five.

–Clifford Hindman, May 13, 1930
College athlete 20-year-old Clifford Hindman was working his way through college with his job at the fire department.One day, a year after high school graduation, he was working at a fire station when the men were called to a vehicle fire. A Studebaker sedan was on fire at 3400 Tenth Street.

On the way to the fire, the pumper truck Hindman was riding on skidded into a curb and overturned. Hindman was killed, but two other men on the truck escaped with only minor injuries.

— Ran Smith, May 28, 1960
Captain Ran Smith was stationed at Fire Station 1 on May 28,1960, when the department was called out to a structure fire at Third Street and Indiana. The business, Mike Carter’s Engine Work, was on fire.

While at the scene, Smith collapsed of a heart attack and died. He was 66 years old.

— Jeff Hardin, July 19, 1984
Jeff Hardin had been with the fire department for one year when he was called to a fire that claimed his life. He went into a resale shop on Eastside Drive with a rookie firefighter. They were working their way through the building when they lost their line — firefighters are told to always hold onto the fire hose as their way of finding the exit.

Through the flames, smoke and large amounts of merchandise, Hardin got trapped. The other firefighter was able to find his way out.

Brothers
The first four fallen men are remembered mostly through photographs and artifacts, but Smith and Hardin are still on the minds of current and retired firefighters. Fire Chief Earl Foster said of losing a fellow firefighter, “It crushes you.”

Foster went through the fire academy with Hardin in 1983. The events of July 1984, he said, are hard for many to talk about.

“There’s a brotherhood. You work with these people, but it’s a family,” he said. To lose a member of the team is like losing a close family member.

Assistant Chief Bill Weske was at the fire the day Hardin was killed.

“It was a weird day to begin with,” he said. Weske was assigned to Station 2 that day when he got a call about a car fire. When they finished that call, they followed the smoke in the sky to the fire on Eastside Drive.

“When I got there, I walked around the building, and started getting word about the possibility of a firefighter missing. I can close my eyes right now and put myself back in that time,” he said.

Not in Vain
A tragedy like the death of a firefighter shakes a community, Foster said. It wakes people up and gets them thinking about what they need to do next.

The deaths of these men has helped in keeping the Wichita Falls Fire Department advancing. After the Antlers Hotel fire in 1929, the department started working toward getting a 100-foot aerial truck.

Jim Pettyjohn remembers standing in an alley watching a hotel burn. He recalls seeing men on the top floor wanting help but the firefighters unable to reach them.

“I was standing, watching people jump,” he said. After the first one, he turned his face to the wall. “It broke your heart. I couldn’t watch.”

Twelve years later, the department got its first 100-foot aerial truck.

After Smith’s death at age 66, the department implemented a rule for mandatory retirement at 65 years old. Since Hardin’s death, technology has come a long way, and so has the fire department.

In a letter to Hardin’s daughter on the 25th anniversary of his death, Foster wrote about the advances the department has seen. One of the most important, which was a result of Hardin’s death, was the instant command system. The system allows firefighters to keep better track of each other and makes sure that everyone is always accounted for.

Radio communications, thermal imaging cameras and the quality of the gear have all added to the increased safety protection that firefighters have to avoid become a victim.

From a community standpoint, Foster said, the deaths stand as a reminder that it’s the fire chief’s job to not let the community forget.