BROOKINGS – On a cold winter evening on Dec. 23, 2019, Tim Austin fought his last fire, at Brookings Custom Image downtown. He retired Jan. 7, 2020, as captain after 20 years as a volunteer firefighter on the Brookings Fire Department. 

At 53 years old, he figured it was time to step down and leave the job to younger men and women.

“You’re kind of in the zone for heart attacks at that point,” Austin said of his age, laughing heartily. “It’s harder. It’s labor-intensive work. A lot of humping hose up and down the street. Even in your 50s, if you’re physically fit, it’s not too difficult; but still, it taxes a person.”

A disability rating from the Veterans Administration didn’t stop him from being a firefighter. He served in the Navy as a boatswain’s mate from 1986 to 1990. While stationed on the USS Puget Sound (AD-38), a destroyer tender, Austin “was injured on the flight deck during a NATO exercise in the North Atlantic.”

He served as a landing signalman when helicopters took off and landed. He had also received “a lot of firefighter training in the Navy. Everyone’s a fireman on a ship.”

Time and dedication demanded

In retirement, Austin sees himself as a self-appointed recruiter and wants “to reach out to the rest of the community.”

With a degree in fire science and several training courses behind him, Austin has had an interest in recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters. He has studied literature put out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency of which the United States Fire Administration is a department. 

“When I got on (the fire department), it was just all the old guys,” he said. “These guys had been on 25, 30 years. There weren’t very many of us young guys. And over a period of about four or five years, they all mustered out. 

“So then there was a big turnover. I think in a 10-year period at one point there was like 31 or 32 people that had gone and new ones come aboard.”

The Brookings Fire Department is composed of 48 members – three career members and 45 volunteers.

“It used to be you were entrenched in your community. You stayed there. People are so transient now; that’s one of the things that this FEMA book put out.

“We’ve had a lot of guys come into town for work and then a couple years they’re gone. That’s been the bulk of us. For the last 20 years, we’ve had quite a turnover. There are maybe a half-dozen guys that were there when I got on.”

For Austin, being a volunteer firefighter was a sort of family tradition when he joined at age 33: “My dad (Jerry Austin) was on in the early ’70s. I grew up around the firehouse here. He was on for about 2 1/2 to three years. When I was 5 or 6 years old, he’d be dragging me down to the fire station. It was every kid’s dream to be a fireman.”

No longer just ‘firemen’

Also while on the department, with the help of the late George and Evelyn Norby of Brookings, Austin collected, organized and archived a lot of memorabilia tied to the history of the Brookings Fire Department. And he chaired a History and Picture Committee.

“I’ve pretty much been here my whole life,” Austin, a Brookings High School alumnus, said of his residing here.

“If you’ve got the time – and it takes a lot of time and dedication – and you want to do something for your community, volunteer. Go get an application for the fire department.”

Be advised that the job demands stamina and good health; and be advised that the department is no longer just “firemen.” 

Austin noted that there now two women “firefighters” on the department roll, and he served with four or five women during his years on the department.

“They’ve all done terrific work,” he said. “They’re all knowledgeable. They dig right in with everybody else.”

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.