Celebrate Horn, Carr at Fire District 13 open house Friday

Roy Horn literally wrote the book on the Hope Island Volunteer Fire Department.

Now he is about to embark on a new chapter in life.

Horn announced his decision to retire as chief of Skagit County Fire District 13 near La Conner in May, a post he has held for the past 17 years. Friday he will be honored with other long-serving district officials at a special open house, 1-5 p.m. at the Snee-Oosh Road station.

The other honorees are: Horn’s wife, Maggie, the district’s administrative assistant for nearly two decades; Battalion Chief Ted Carr, who with 34 years on the books has the longest tenure in district history; and Lt. Andrew Lester, the district’s “go-to guy” for hazardous material training since the early 2000s.

A special presentation is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

Maggie Horn has through the years assumed the role of “Radar O’Reilly,” the popular character from the TV show M*A*S*H*, according to chief Horn.

“She’s always one step ahead of everyone else and she knows exactly where everything in the district belongs,” he said.

Carr, said Horn, has been witness to a wide range of changes within firefighting and the district, the latter having evolved into a full-time staffed entity six years ago.

“He has always been there for both the firefighters and our citizens,” Horn said of Carr.

Horn calls Lester’s ability to teach the best and safest ways to work around hazardous chemicals a true gift.

“This gift that he brought to the district will be missed,” Horn stressed.

In addition to his expertise with hazardous materials, Lester earned kudos for his ability to troubleshoot technology issues and helped install solar panels on the roof of the SneeOosh station building.

“Whenever the chief or other members of the district were ready to kick their computers,” Horn quipped, “Andrew always came to our rescue.”

For his part, Horn is known in firefighting circles for having published this year an engaging anecdotal history of the old Hope Island Fire Department, which he joined in 2000 at the urging of then-chief Bill Clothier.

Horn had come to appreciate the vital role Hope Island firefighters played in the shoreline residential community.

“On Nov. 15, 1996,” Horn recalled to the Weekly News, “my wife and I rented a small house at Snee-Oosh Beach directly across the street from the then-small two-bay Hope Island Volunteer Fire Department. At the time, this little fire department had a siren affixed to the top of the fire house and on each call the entire neighborhood was awakened and the siren would also result in the coyotes baying. Within this tiny neighborhood we became close friends with our neighbors, the majority of whom consisted of the retired charter members of the department or others who had been long-term volunteers with the department.

“At most social get-togethers,” said Horn, “the conversation would at some point always revert back to the stories, histories, or other significant ‘war stories’ concerning events that had occurred during their years as active members of the department.”

It was those department retirees who encouraged Horn to approach Clothier about joining the department.

The rest, as they say, is history – much of which is chronicled in Horn’s book.

“During my first year, in 2000, I spent a lot of time training and learning skills while the Hope Island Volunteer Fire Department responded to 87 emergency calls,” Horn related. “This year, 2019, we will by year’s end have been toned out – the overhead siren has long been removed – to approximately 1,450 emergency calls.”

Looking back, most of his memories by far are fond ones. There are, however, painful reminders of the life-and-death situations into which firefighters are summoned.

“What stands out for me during my 20 years with Fire District 13,” Horn said, “is not the horrendous fires like the Shelter Bay Marina fire, numerous structure fires – including four houses burning at once – the terrible loss of life by overdoses, the countless CPR calls or the tragic loss of life through car crashes.

No,” he said, “you never completely erase these calls but what stands out for me and what I will remember in my retirement is the companionship and interactions with the men and women with whom I served.”

There is great satisfaction, he noted, in overcoming hardships and dangers to help one’s friends and neighbors.

“It creates a feeling of euphoria rarely achieved outside the fire service,” explained Horn. “It’s so special when these moments are shared with other firefighters.”

The drawbacks to serving as a fire chief, he said, have been pretty much limited to occasional political skirmishes. Yet even that arena has had its rewards, Horn said.

When Fire District 13 began manning its station full-time, the fire department significantly reduced response times but was underfunded. Horn said entering the arduous process of grant-writing became a must.

“Our department,” he said, “has written and has been successful in obtaining $6.3 million in grants that have allowed us to upgrade our equipment and apparatus without asking citizens for a tax increase.”

Fire District 13 is able, though a federally funded grant, to award scholarship aid to students seeking careers as firefighters or paramedics, he said.

“Part of their student contract,” Horn said, “requires that they work in our fire district for 96 hours per month. A lot of these bright young students stay with our department after graduating.”

Horn is proud of his department’s development of the popular well-being and safety check program “Good Morning, District 13” and its working partnerships with Skagit County and the Swinomish Tribal Community.

Three years ago District 13 became the first rural fire department in the area to transport basic life support patients to area hospitals, he said, and is an active participant in the Skagit Valley College Fire Service program.

Horn credits his successor, new fire chief-designate Wood Weiss, Lt. Gary Ladd and state EMS certified instructor Sarah Hill for their efforts in Fire District 13 becoming an authorized EMS Training Hub.

More changes, as firefighting and emergency management issues evolve, are on the horizon, Horn indicated.

The fire district already has its own emergency management arm, said Horn, headed by Capt. Ted Taylor, and which works in concert with the Tribe and County addressing potential natural disasters such as earthquakes and wild land fires.

Horn said the best part of the job from which he is retiring has been the bonds he has built with fire district personnel and the public.

Those are ties that will remain in place in retirement, he vowed.

“I wish to take this opportunity,” said Horn, “to express my sincere thanks, best wishes and appreciation to the citizens of the district, the firefighters and emergency medical technicians, the staff, and Board of Fire Commissioners for their support and vision during the past 20 years.”