Shelbina Fire Chief to Retire After 52 Years of Service

By Mark Requet

  For years Gene Harland has been a part of the Shelbina Fire Protection District responding to fires and other emergencies in Shelbina and the surrounding communities. Harland is ready to retire after 52 years of service, including 30 plus years as the chief.

  Harland got his start in his early 20s when his daughter was just under a year old. He was asked to install some equipment in the trucks.

  “They had just got a new truck, a 74 Ford, and at that time they wanted to put CB radios in all the trucks, which there were only three, so they conned me into coming down one night to put the radios in,” said Harland. “Well, they were pulling the hose off the other truck and reloading it and all that and I got the radios all in and everything. I said ‘ok, there you go’ and I got ready to go to the door and they said, ‘no, you’re not getting out of here that easy.’”

  Harland said they pointed to a pair of boots and a coat telling him they will fit him. They also gave him a helmet and told him he “gets a pair of these wonderful orange gloves.”

  “I said, oh, I didn’t know I was getting into that,” Harland added. “They said, ‘Oh yeah, you’re in.’ So that’s how it got started.”

  Harland went through the training. Though unsure of the timing, he said Lendell Adams may have been the chief at the time he joined, but then Sam Leeper became the chief. He said Leeper had Kenny Hoover from Mexico come up and put on a basic firefighter class. He said there were several of them that went through training, but that the training was continuous.

  “There’s a lot of ups and there’s a lot of downs with the job,” said Harland. “We try to push more of the ups as much as we can, but the downs are sometimes bad enough that you will lose a couple firemen because they couldn’t handle it, so they were done.”

  Harland has met a lot of good people and a lot of good firemen through the years. He’s also met a lot of good fire chiefs from all over the state.

  “It’s just been a glorious thing as far as I’m concerned. I really feel fortunate that I was able to go that many years,” added Harland.

  Harland remembered a time when they were going to do a planned burning of a house in Shelbina and Marty Lowe and Al Dimmitt were firemen at the time. They had to go hook the hydrant up down the street. They were getting ready to hook it up when Marty let out a little noise.

  “He said look at those snakes around the hydrant? Dimmitt and I took off up the street. We weren’t hanging around for snakes,” Harland said with a laugh.

  Unfortunately for Harland and many firemen in his shoes, they also experience a lot of bad events. Harland remembered when he was a fireman in his early years, they had a house fire in which a little boy died in the fire.

  Years later, when he was receiving an award in Columbia from Farmer’s Mutual Insurance, the fire marshal presenting the award was the same fire marshal that came and worked the fire where the boy died. He told Gene he remembered him from that night. Both agreed it wasn’t a good night to remember.

  Harland took over as chief after Chief Marty Lowe left and has been a part of some memorable events during his time as chief. One of the biggest events he has worked was the downtown fire in which the west block of downtown Shelbina burned.

  “We’ve been called to mutual aid at different places, but we experienced nothing like the fire in Shelbina. That wasn’t just hours, that was days because we were back there every four or five hours doing this and that,” said Harland. “It was just an awful rough time. Having to knock the buildings down, a lot of people hated me for that, but I couldn’t see family in a minivan going down the street having a wall fall on them. I just couldn’t have handled that at all.”

  Harland will miss seeing the people, especially the kids, when he retires.

  “Going and coming to the schoolhouses to see the kids and the Halloween parties that we have with all the kids that come by and get a hot dog,” said Harland. “I’m going to miss that and miss the people the most.”

  Harland added they really have no clue who they might be recruiting when they go to the schools to see the kids.

  “One of the last recruits we got was Coltin Hillard. He ended up coming in his senior year as a cadet and he wanted to get a bunch of training in before he went to the Marines. He’s very good help,” said Harland. “Now he’s training to be a policeman. I like to see the young kids get involved. I know a lot of them don’t want to do anything, but a fireman’s job is hard work. But we try to compensate them for their hard work.”

  As far as staying busy after retirement, Harland will continue to work on lawnmowers and chainsaws at his home and plans to drive a school bus for one more year.

  “I’m going to keep busy doing something. I’ll get in trouble if I don’t,” said Harland.

  A lot of the older firemen that he grew up with, have quit or retired so he is hoping to a lot of them can make it to his retirement party.

  A retirement party will be held Sunday, June 28, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Shelbina Christian Church Fellowship Hall.