Brian Haines has served on the Milford Volunteer Fire Department for 19 years. Photo by Nathan Pace.

By Nathan Pace
InkFreeNews

Brian Haines has 35 years of firefighting in Kosciusko County under his belt and every time he thinks it is time to move on he finds a way to stay. Haines currently serves as an assistant fire chief at the Milford Volunteer Fire Department.

“Every year I keep saying this is going to be my last. I have a passion. A lot of guys here have a passion for it and I just do. When you stay involved, stay active and you want to keep doing it. That’s the best thing,” Haines said.

With Milford being a volunteer department, Haines works during the day at CTB in town and volunteers at the fire station in the evenings and nights. Depending on the situations, it could be a work that never really ends. One recent example was a tornado warning on Monday, July 15.

“May work anywhere from 40 to 50 hours a week and you never know what firefighting is going to bring,” Haines said. “There are nights where we might be out all night on a call. We come out here when the tornado warning went off and I finally fell back asleep at 4 o’clock and had to wake up at 5 a.m. to go to work. You have nights where you don’t get much sleep.”

The sacrifices have been worth it for Haines as he has reached 19 years at Milford. He was a firefighter in Leesburg and Winona Lake as well. Haines grew up following his late father, Richard, on calls when he was fire chief at Winona Lake.

“A lot of it was the rest of the family being a part of it. When we were kids in high school we would be in bed and dad would get a fire call and it would be a race to see who was going to go with him. Even though we had school the next day we always want to get up and go along,” Haines said. “The interest was always there.”

Two of his three brothers are also firefighters in the department in Troy and Todd. Todd also has the current title of assistant fire chief. All three have been fire chief for the department for at least two different stints going back to 1993.

Haines feels his family pedigree and experience helps him stay calm during stressful calls in the area.

“We are always the ones people call when their day is not going very well. Just being able to support them. Do what we can to hopefully make their day a little bit better or the best it can be,” Haines said.

Haines has been married 33 years to his wife Vicki and the couple has two daughters in Hannah and Emily. Both daughters are Wawasee graduates. Hannah is a nurse and Emily is in college to become a teacher.

One aspect that keeps bringing Haines back to the fire department is the variety.

“The role varies. You just don’t know day-to-day what your role is going to be,” Haines said.

His favorite part of the job is teaching students about fire prevention.

“Fire prevention is always the best,” Haines said. “Going down to the school and being able to interact with kids and later being someplace and the kids recognize you and you know they’re listening.”