Fifty years in fire – and counting

Ask John Mathieu about his long career in fire service, and you will hear story after story that reveals he is more than willing to serve but is a reluctant leader. He loves fighting fire and volunteering his time, but the Willow Springs native prefers a workhorse role. His five decades in public service, however, have put him in leadership positions over and over again. On Sunday, Feb. 16, a crowd gathered at Eleven Point Café in Willow Springs to honor Mathieu and his fifty years of running towards danger for his neighbors.

 

Fittingly, the party had to be a surprise. 

 

“My wife was in on it. So was everybody else,” Mathieu said. “I thought, ‘Man, there’s a lot of people in here’ so I headed for a table in the back. I turned around and I saw a cake with my face on it.”

 

“To me, it’s not a big deal,” he about his almost unheard-of fifty years. “It’s just something I’ve always done.”

 

Mathieu’s career in the fire service began when he joined the Willow Springs Fire Department in 1975, just three years out of high school. 

 

“They wanted me because I was close to the fire station,” Mathieu suggested. In those days, the station was by the viaduct near what is now DC Plumbing. “It was always a race to get there first. The guy who got there first got to drive the fire truck.”

 

Mathieu served 29-and-a-half years on the WSFD, eventually serving as chief. 

 

In 2004, he took on a new challenge – reviving and reinvigorating the fledgling Eleven Point Rural Fire Department. He donated his own building for use as a fire station, where it stands to this day. He modernized and organized the department.

 

Mathieu is even credited with bringing the first set of jaws of life to Howell County, having organized a radio-thon to raise 15 thousand dollars for the purchase. 

 

Current Eleven Point Chief Frank Vanhorn took the helm as chief in 2010, but Mathieu remains as involved as ever and continues to serve as the president of the fire department’s board.

 

“He’s dedicated- never misses a fire call,” Vanhorn said of Mathieu. “The fire service is a lifestyle. You have it in you or you don’t. He’s still out there actually fighting the fires. He responds to calls at 2, 3 in the morning. The older ones we’re out there. We don’t sleep through the tones.”

 

Vanhorn says 50 years is a “huge, huge milestone.” The department not only organized the party but also pitched in to send Mathieu and his wife on a five-day cruise. 

 

“They deserve it,” Vanhorn said. 

 

Also present to honor Mathieu were Missouri State Fire Marshal Tim Bean and Missouri State Representative Lisa Durnell. Durnell, a Willow Springs native herself, presented Mathieu with her first-ever resolution from the Missouri House. 

 

“It was an honor to be able to present my first resolution to him,” she said. “John has been such a dependable member of our community when it comes to his fire service. He has kept his head down and worked hard for our citizens, and he doesn't enjoy the limelight at all, but he certainly deserved to be in it for a while last week while we celebrated this impressive milestone.”

 

A milestone it is – Mathieu has no intentions of retiring. He has fifty years in the fire service – and counting.