Palmer Firefighter retires after 40 years of service

PALMER — After four decades of service for the Palmer Fire and Rescue, Bruce Axtell was recognized at the Palmer City Council meeting on Oct. 13 for his decades of service to the citizens of Palmer.

“As Deputy Chief, Bruce Axtell brought to the department a culture of safety and a no-nonsense leadership style. He spent countless hours training members on fire apparatus operation and maintaining and repairing our equipment. His contribution to the department and community was immeasurable, and will be missed,” said Acting Chief Dave Lundin.

After his military service, Axtell was hired by the Palmer Fire Department in 1980 as a volunteer.

“I’ve been literally every position that was available here,” said Axtell. “When I started firefighting, we had old military gas masks.”

As a member of the Palmer Fire and Rescue for the last four decades, Axtell has seen the changes and evolution in emergency services unfold over time and been instrumental in the development of a robust Fire Department that serves the Greater Palmer Fire Service Area from Moose Creek northeast on the Glenn Highway, to the Glenn and Parks Highway interchange, east to Smith Road including Lazy Mountain, West to Trunk Road and south as far as Pamela Street on Wasilla Fishhook Road.

“When I first started with Palmer, we had the only ambulance in the borough and we were all first aid trained, nobody was EMT’s, that hadn’t happened yet, and we went as far as King Mountain that way, as far as Trapper Creek that way and then took them into Anchorage or maybe to the hospital in the quonset hut over here, but that was a long time ago. So medical care has really changed over the years it’s actually a very professional service now,” said Axtell. “We spent a lot of time on the highway transferring patients from Valley Hospital to Providence because they didn’t have the level of care needed here, so we got a lot of patient time. Nowadays with the modern hospital with the modern ER and all the gear they have here, the transit times are shorter. We now have helicopters to help which we never had in the past, very rarely.”

After being hired on as a volunteer in 1980, Axtell quickly rose up the ranks due to his mechanical expertise. Axtell worked as the fleet mechanic at Matanuska Telephone Association and also served as the Safety Director for MTA. Axtell describes the importance of the changes that have taken place in Borough EMS services over the years. While oftentimes firefighters were limited to external attack in the early days, the incorporation of the Greater Palmer Fire Service Area, encompassing areas outside of the city limits greatly affected how EMS services were available.

“I was working as a mechanic at MTA, fleet mechanic, so I started taking over working on vehicles here in conjunction with city shop and wasn’t too long after that Chief Contini appointed me as maintenance captain and as my training with the fire department went higher, that maintenance captain just segued into fire captain, still doing maintenance,” said Axtell. “Then we started internal fire attack and that was a game changer for everybody. New learning, we actually had people come up from the lower 48 who had been doing that give us some lessons, MSA was wonderful about helping us maintain the rigs and what not. Now I think what’s really the change is an integrated incident command.”

Axtell said that most calls that Palmer Fire and Rescue are called to now are medical assist calls and there is less travel time with patients. Axtell notes the model of volunteer fire departments that originated on the East Coast and notes a marked difference between larger metropolitan fire departments and volunteer outfits like the ones found in Alaska. Axtell has confidence in the current leadership and believes the fire service to be more than adequate.

“We’re seamless when we go in. We’re using the same radio, the same language, the same air packs. So if my bottle gets depleted, I simply go to their rescue unit either get my bottle refilled or grab one of theirs. It’s sometimes a hassle, up to two weeks later getting all the equipment back to who it belongs to, but it’s all integrated. I think that’s been a huge improvement for firefighter safety,” said Axtell. “In reality, Palmer Fire is as good as any municipal fire department anywhere. Central is as good, Lakes is as good. We have the same training, the same equipment, and in reality our little department gets as much time per person on emergency scenes as any of those big departments.”

Axtell noted common misconceptions that each Fire Department in the Mat-Su Borough is fully staffed at all hours of the day, clarifying that firefighters are still volunteers that must respond in an emergency. Axtell also served as an EMT II for 30 years with Palmer Fire and Rescue. In his four decades, Axtell was promoted to Assistant Chief, Deputy Chief, and Interim Chief in the brief period between Chief Contini and Chief McNutt, who recently moved away from Palmer. Axtell has been asked to help select the next Fire Chief for Palmer and impart some of his wisdom onto the next leader. After 40 years, Axtell still feels the affirmation of having helped protect citizens in the city of Palmer.

“Here, we’re a brotherhood. So what all of us do is to make sure that we’re safe, but the most satisfying part is going in and stopping a house fire or the dryers on fire and we get it out and having the people come up and say thank you for being there,” said Axtell. “That’s truly the thing that I think keeps all of us going is that occasional thank you from the people that we help.”