Growing up the son of a police chief, a young Tim Thyer was constantly slipping off to the Iola police department to be by his dad?s side. Law enforcement was in his blood. Firefighting, not so much.
Even after 32 years of putting out fires and assisting in car wrecks, the Iola fire chief has no plans of stopping anytime soon.
?Growing up, I always wanted to be in law enforcement. I hung around the station as long as I could remember, but with dad being the chief, I couldn?t work there,? he said.
?I love Iola. I love this town and the people and love serving this community,? Thyer said. ?I still have a couple of years left in me. I could have retired two years ago, but I want to do this as long as I am able.?
Those first days on the job were back in 1987 ? the days of VHS players, camcorders, and lots of good memories. Thyer said he learned most things about firefighting with on-the-job-training.
Today?s new firefighter, however, requires more specialized training in using the more sophisticated equipment.
?I have taken a lot of classes and have had a lot of training,? he said. ?But at the end of the day, it?s on-the-job training that is the most helpful. It?s like when you get an EMT in for a day of training. You can count on that day being the most boring day. I mean nothing is going to happen. Then two hours after they go home we have one of the worst wrecks this county has ever seen. That?s just how things work out. Things happen when you least expect them.?
Initially, Thyer never aspired to becoming chief, noting its demands.
?But the longer you stay on the more you start to look at things you would change. How you would make things on the job more fair, and how you want to make a difference.?
Thyer did entertain thoughts of leaving for other opportunities, but his family and his heart always knew Iola was home.
?I had a chance to go to Overland Park years ago. I went down and did a ride around with the chief. The idea of it seemed exciting to me. It?s a much bigger city with more opportunities to do things. The department is busier. I?d get an increase in pay. But then I get home and my wife looks at me and says, ?We?re not moving. This is home,?? Thyer said. ?And it is home. I have had a few other opportunities, but looking back after all these years there are very few things I would do differently.?
Recently, Thyer and and his crew have been able to enjoy a blast from the past as the department has been converting videotapes of old firefights into digital recordings.
?We had stacks of old fires that we had on VHS. You remember them all. When I first got on with the department, we had two really big fires,? Thyer said, including a fire on Aug. 10, 1990 that forever changed the landscape of the Iola square. Determined to be arson, the fire began in the kitchen area of T.C.?s Diner on the west side of the square, which contained the law office of John Foust on its second floor. Also destroyed were buildings that housed Hixon?s Office Supplies and Equipment and China Palace Restaurant.
The boyhood home of Frederick Funston was later moved from north of Iola to fill the gaping hole created by the fire.
