ST. LOUIS – Even when they are off duty, they are on a mission. Local firefighters are stepping up to support neighborhoods hit by the May 16 tornado. And they are doing it on their own time.
“People need help. Lots of people need help. That’s what keeps us going,” Dan Clark, president of the International Firefighters Local 73.
Clark is a firefighter with the St. Louis Fire Department. Several other departments, including University City, Maplewood, and Clayton, have visited dozens of homes, where they have boarded up windows, tarped roofs, and cleared debris.
Cynthia Williams’ family has lived on at the corner of Enright and Aubert Avenues in the Fountain Park neighborhood for more than 80 years. Her three-story home was a near-total loss from the storms. But the firefighters did hours of intense—and, at times, dangerous—work. They pushed back chimneys, set a tarp over the roof, and boarded up windows.
“What can you say about people when they volunteer their own time. And energy. To help other people who didn’t have hope?” Williams said. “They’re people who are in the kind of job that they’re in now because they already have the right kind of heart. To try and save people that are hit with fires, all those different things.”
Some of the firefighters are retirees. Leo Keuhner is now getting back in the game.
“I’ve been retired from the St. Louis Fire Department for 13 years now. We don’t get paid, none of these guys are getting paid. Just coming out on a day off, helping out,” Keuhner said.
All of the items, from the power tools to tarp to lumber and ladders, are new and were donated from area stores, including the Maplewood Lowe’s.
The work was a coordinated effort from 4 The Ville and McCarthy Construction.