A Principal That Actually Puts Out Fires

by Jonathon Pickelmann

Beep beep beep… Buzz buzz buzz…

Huh? What? What is that? It’s way too early to get up already! A quick glance at the clock shows that it is 2:00 a.m.

Then the realization hits… it’s a call to action. The beeping and buzzing is one of the pagers going off. Then the tones sound—ours were the same as Squad 51 on Emergency! the TV show. Finally, the call comes over the radio, and you hear what is happening somewhere in the community that you are sworn to protect. It could be anything from a simple fire alarm, to a weather emergency, to an actual house fire.

Putting out fires is something that we all do on a figurative level each and every day in our schools. The time to move is here. So it’s out of bed, throw the clothes on that were neatly laid out for just this situation, and out the door to your vehicle for the mile or so jaunt to the fire station. Once there, it was a race to get the necessary gear on, then to the truck and out to the roadway to make our way to whatever emergency needed us. This took all of seven minutes usually, and while doing that, while it was tough, try not to wake the whole house including the babies and the dog!

Once on the scene, your brain had to be out of its fog to be ready to battle a raging inferno, or to be able to precisely cut a car apart to extricate someone, or to provide whatever care was needed—maybe just to write up a report regarding burnt popcorn from someone’s midnight snack.

Putting out fires is something that we all do on a figurative level each and every day in our schools. I have been blessed to be a part of a school teaching family. Growing up, I was at school all the time, since my dad was principal, and not only that, we lived in a teacherage.

For me, it was both figurative and literal.

I became an LCMS teacher in 2001, and then a principal in 2008. I have seen a goodly share of the figurative fires that we work so hard to prevent yet seem to pop up all over the place regardless of our best efforts. In 2004, I became a volunteer firefighter for Saginaw Township Fire Department.

I became interested in the fire department during my high school years. I had some good friends who were in the fire explorer program. (This was a program implemented in the community that allowed high school students to be a part of the fire department and gain some experience before they were able to attend the academy and become full-fledged firefighters).

It took a while for me to be in a position to be able to pursue this dream. I also did not really understand all of the work that it would take to achieve that dream.

It took nearly a full calendar year to graduate from probationary status to full firefighter status. During that year, and for the remainder of my career, there were classes to be taken (16 credits for the academy, plus many others), two trainings per month, and calls to make. Then there were the “special teams” that I joined, like Hazardous Materials and Specialized Rescue. That required more trainings per month, as well as more calls to make. I also became a fire services instructor, and started teaching the fire academy classes. Down the line, I was asked to work with the extrication equipment, to help design the first of the next generation of STFD Fire Engines, and to be a Flashover Simulator Instructor. This last one was awesome! We basically built a fire in a modified semi-trailer, then let it burn until the smoke was on fire over our heads, then knocked it back and did it all over again. We hit temperatures in the 1,400F range regularly.

I was able to meet people in some of their worst times and be able to share some Christian love and compassion with them.Each time the pagers went off, it was a heart jumping experience. Whether it was a fire alarm or a full out structure fire, the excitement of being out in the community and bringing my own background to that was awesome. I was able to meet people in some of their worst times and be able to share some Christian love and compassion with them. Over time, I learned about Critical Incident Stress Management, and worked with our department chaplain on getting a group trained. Today, I am a part of the South Wisconsin District Disaster Response and CISM Team, and am looking forward to receiving a response trailer soon, thanks to a grant from LWML and Synod.

When I talk about this, some people ask if I was ever scared. The answer is always a yes. Each time the pagers went off, there was excitement, but there was also fear. Yet the words of Jesus came back to me each time and drove me to make the truck, and to teach the others… John 15:13—“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (ESV). God put me in a position to be able to make sure that all of my friends went home safely, by putting me on the truck with them, or by allowing me to teach them things that came from my experience.

Fires all over the place, and we put them out. Both figuratively and literally. While the stress of the main job can be somewhat overwhelming, it is one of those things that did not compare to the stress of putting out an actual fire.

God bless as you put out fires that you have around you.

Jon Pickelmann is the principal at St. Paul's Lutheran in Oconomowoc, Wis. He served as a firefighter with Saginaw Township Fire Department in Michigan. Jon has been an LCMS worker for 15 years. He literally grew up in Lutheran schools, as both parents were LCMS teachers and administrators.