Ill. EMT marks nearly 50 years of service

By Payton Felix

Daily Gazette

ERIE, Ill. — The Erie Fire Protection District has expanded its ambulance services over the years and one volunteer has seen it all.

Advanced Emergency Medical Technician Jeff Wirth joined the department 48 years ago, on July 1, 1977, because “they were looking for people on the ambulance service” that “had only been running since the fall of 1976,” Wirth said.

“We have a good relationship between fire and ambulance. I enjoy doing it. That’s why I’ve been there that long,” Wirth said.

Wirth said the one call that sticks out to him the most is a house fire in 1979.

“The Bealer fire. They always called it,” he said. “I was a new EMT at that time, just graduated.”

In December that year, a fire erupted at 1003 Main St. in Erie, killing four members of the B