At their recent annual banquet the Clear Lake Fire Dept. honored two of their own, Wayne Marklowitz, retiring after 14 years on the department, and Paul Hans, retiring after 23 years.
“Paul was captain for at least half the years he was on the department,” said Fire Chief Ron Koren. “He’s dedicated, unafraid to voice his opinion and very approachable.”
Along with his years as a firefighter, Hans was also assistant emergency manager for the City of Clear Lake, and liaison to the St. Cloud Regional Airport response unit.
“Wayne was also a captain, as well as assistant training officer.” said Koren. “At a scene he was always ready to do anything asked of him, and he was the first to volunteer whenever needed.
He was very dedicated and gave his all.”
Marklowitz joined the department after helping out at an incident 15 years ago where he helped find a lost child.
“I realized a lot of my friends were on the force,” he said. “They told me to come and help them every day.”
He had always wanted to join, so it was the push he needed. During his 14 years he helped out a lot with training; he especially enjoyed watching new firefighters grow and experience the job.
For four of those years he was also a fire and EMS (emergency medical services) instructor at St. Cloud Technical and Community College.
“It was another way to continue teaching,” said Marklowitz. “We [the instructors] had to learn new techniques to teach the students, which I would bring back to the department.”
A number of memories stand out from his time as a firefighter, especially the “firsts.” The first fatal car accident. The first big structure fire.
“They either make you stronger or make you weaker, it’s up to you,” he said.
The hardest part of being a firefighter is time in a lot of different ways, Marklowiz shared. From having to leave work or a party, to being out on a call 12 to 14 hours.
“There’s a great deal of time commitment, different aspects to being a firefighter that people don’t realize,” he said. “Meetings, calls, education. A large percentage of our calls are medical.
It’s not just jump on the fire truck and fight fires.”
“It takes a lot of time from families,” he continued. “You have to decide if you want to deal with it.”
Marklowitz still responds to calls if he sees the department needs help, like he did a couple weeks ago when there were two back to back calls, one of which needed a number of people.
“We talk a lot about the word ‘family’ on the department,” he said. “That’s the important thing. It has to be to create the personal bond with each other, the trust you build with the people around you.”
“The bonding, the friendship, the community members you helped. I miss that part of it.”
The Clear Lake Fire Dept. is always looking for additional people to join the team. If interested, call Clear Lake City Hall at 320-743-3111.
