quick response and excellent medical care saved Aaron’s life. We will always be grateful for their efforts...words don’t seem adequate to express how fortunate we feel to still have Aaron with us.”
From a beginning with one cart and one hose, the Maple Lake Fire Department now has 11 vehicles: two engines, three tankers, a water/ice rescue trailer, a heavy rescue and light rescue truck, a grass unit, an ambulance and an ATV for fighting grass fires. Through a fundraising effort, the fire department also acquired a LUCAS device that is used to perform chest compressions during CPR. Maple Lake has one of two fire department-based ambulances in Wright County and provides mutual aid to all 15 of the Wright County fire departments.
New in 2012 was a rescue truck purchased from Custom Fire Apparatus of Osceola, WI, at a cost of $266,000, which was paid from money set aside in the fire department budget.
The fire department also participates in community activities such as providing fire safety presentations for students, participating in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and past Days of Old celebrations, conducting mock crash presentations for students at Maple Lake High School, assisting with maintenance of the winter skating rink at the city park, and providing fire truck rides for top student readers at Maple Lake Elementary and St. Timothy’s School.
To show their appreciation for the Maple Lake Fire Department, the Maple Lake community hosted the Firefighters & EMT’s Appreciation Gala on September 13, 2003. And in 2004, the Maple Lake Fire Department was presented with the double distinction of serving as the St. Patrick’s Day Parade grand marshals and receiving the 2004 Commodore’s Award for Volunteer Service presented by the Minneapolis Aquatennial.
There have been many reasons given over the years for the success of the Maple Lake Fire Department, but Al Dircks summed it up best in a story written for Maple Lake’s Centennial in 1990 that still holds true today.
“It’s the dedication of the members,” he said. “It’s unbelieveable what those people do and what they give up to perform this charitable service. White shirt or overalls, it doesn’t matter. When the whistle blows, they go.”
Compiled with information from past issues of the Maple Lake Messenger and the Maple Lake Centennial History Book