Texas Fire School Instructor Begins 50th Year

Ernest Patschke is thrilled that TEEX's Municipal Fire School is back in session, but this year's training is extra special for the 83-year-old volunteer instructor.

This week marks Patschke's 50th anniversary as a volunteer pump and groundcover operations instructor at the annual weeklong fire training school -- a milestone no other TEEX fire school instructor has attained.

Patschke was born and raised in Thorndale, about 60 miles west of Bryan-College Station. He joined the Thorndale Volunteer Fire Department in 1951, coerced by his brother-in-law, who was chief at the time.

Patschke worked as a fireman, city marshal and fire chief in the volunteer fire department. More than 60 years later, he still serves as honorary fire chief.

Around 1953, Patschke said, he came to the Texas Engineering Extrension Service's municipal fire training to take a fire-prevention class. After that first class, Patschke was hooked.

"[The training] helped me a lot, to realize all the different equipment and ways of teaching how to successfully fight a fire and cope with the public," he said.

In 1962, when Patschke made the annual trek to College Station to take a fire marshal class, he asked a friend, the president of the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters at the time, to get him a change of scenery.

"I asked for a job out on the field and out of the AC," Patschke said.

As a fire marshal, Patschke said, he found himself spending too much time behind a desk, after having worked in maintenance for the Alcoa plant in Rockdale for over 32 years.

That's when he started instructing for the fire school.

"I look forward to coming here. My family does, too," Patschke said. "The younger ones are always eager to come down here. If I get them to come down the first time, they all want to come back."

The 1,923 students at the fire school this week will take away knowledge they didn't know they didn't know, Patschke said

"Just like myself, I didn't realize how much was involved. How these pumps and everything work and how to maintain them and what to do in case they don't work," Patschke said.

Part of Patchke's pump expertise was acquired first-hand on a call about 20 years ago.

Thorndale and surrounding areas were experiencing massive amounts of rainfall that caused flash flooding. There was a house fire in a rural area, and Patschke and his fellow firefighters weren't able to get the truck to a pump to douse the flames.

Instead, they pumped water from a ditch for four hours. The fire was put out, and everyone inside the home was safe.

"You really can't stay calm," Patschke said. "It puts a strain on you. You just have to try to stay calm and realize where you can get help."

Patschke said the men and women who attend the training aren't the only ones who reap its benefits, though.

"The public doesn't realize how much benefit they get out of this one week. The knowledge and information that they gain here, they take it back to the citizens of their area."

Ernest Reesing, an instructor employed by TEEX, has known Patschke for 30 years. "He's really capable and easy to get along with. He's a good instructor," Reesing said. "He's able to relate to [the students] and he enjoys doing it, or else he wouldn't be doing it for 50 years."

Patschke explains his love for the fire school a little differently.

"It gets in your blood and you can't do nothin' about it," he said with a grin.

Copyright 2012 - The Eagle, Bryan, Texas

McClatchy-Tribune News Service