SALISBURY — After 30 years serving the town as a call firefighter, Mike Reusch took one final ride home in a fire engine Wednesday morning as he retired from duty.
“It’s been fun to watch this community grow, watch the department as it’s grown, watch them develop into what they have today for a full-time department. They have a great group of 16 guys,” Reusch said.
A call firefighter, also known as an on-call firefighter, is a fully trained firefighter who responds to emergencies outside normal working hours.
Reusch, 58, joined the department on New Year’s Day in 1995, continuing a family legacy of firefighting that eventually extended when his son, C.J. Reusch, joined the department eight years ago.
“My son, CJ is actually fourth generation. It’s been my grandfather, my father, myself, and now C.J.,” Mike Reusch said.
Mike Reusch said it was his son who worked with Fire Chief Scott Carrigan to arrange Wednesday’s retirement ceremony, driving the engine that took the retiring firefighter home.
“For him to be able to set this up with the chief and give me a ride home, and all that on a day that he had just finished his shift and he did all of that on his own, it couldn’t have made me more proud, more happy,” Mike Reusch said.
He said that he was actually the one who trained his son.
“I worked with that call department, that group of young men, trained with them, worked with them, and since then I have had the pleasure of working with my son at fire scenes and everything else that goes with this job,” Mike Reusch said.
Asked what it is about firefighting that has brought in four generations of his family, he said it is hard to explain.
“It’s a different brotherhood. It is a different life. it’s just something that if you grew up with it, you knew what it was. You knew the dangers, but you knew all the good that came from it,” Mike Reusch said.
He said that it has been incredible seeing how protocols have evolved since his first days in 1995 when it would be one person on a truck headed out alone toward a house fire.
“To know that today they roll out the door and have a minimum of three, usually four, and the surrounding towns are already on their way for help. It’s a huge, huge improvement in the way that firefighting is developed in that town,” Mike Reusch said.
His mother, Winnie Reusch, said she was very proud of her son’s career.
“He lived his dream,” Winnie Reusch said.
As for what is next, Mike Reusch he said he will continue his 36 year career with National Grid.
“I’m a supervisor now at the electric company,” Mike Reusch said.
He expressed gratitude to those who supported him throughout his career.
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“Thank you to Bobby Cook, the retired chief who hired me, and to my family, especially my wife Nancy, for standing beside me for all that time,” Mike Reusch said.
Mike Reusch’s retirement signifies the end of an era in terms of local firefighting for he was the final member of the town’s call-department.
Carrigan did not return a call for comment in time for this report.
Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: mpetry@northofboston.com.
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