Success resident Duane Gabriel has been responding to fires ever since the inception of the Roby Fire Department in 1988. But after 24 years and hundreds of fires, he’s hanging up his hat and boots for good, and is now a retired volunteer firefighter.
Gabriel, who came to the area from Michigan in 1985 and has run a lawn care sales and service business since 1986, is one of a handful of men who helped get a fire department started in northwest Texas County. The Roby department began in Success by taking over facilities and equipment previously used by the defunct Success Fire Department.
By choice, Gabriel never served as chief of the Roby Fire Department, and served with about 10 different chiefs.
“I held pretty much every other position,” he said. “But I never wanted to be chief.”
While holding those other positions – including board president – Gabriel was instrumental in helping make several improvements in the department, including getting satellite stations up and running at Roby and Evening Shade in around 1990. The Roby station was ironically destroyed by fire in 2002, and Gabriel helped secure funding for a replacement.
The longtime firefighter was also involved for years in Fire Prevention Week activities at county schools.
“That has made a tremendous reduction in the number of fires,” Gabriel said. “Before we started those programs, house fires were almost routine. Now they’re rare in comparison.”
Motivation to continue in the firefighting field for so long with basically no monetary compensation came to Gabriel primarily from a sense of charity.
“It’s always good to help other people out,” he said. “You can make a positive difference to people who really need help, and when you can see a building still standing with minimal damage when you leave – that’s real good.”
Of course, rural firefighters with volunteer departments don’t just spray water on flames. They at times help law enforcement agencies with traffic control, assist emergency medical response personnel with setting up helicopter landing zones, and join search and rescue operations.
Like many men who have been part of Texas County’s firefighting culture for a long time, Gabriel recalls when it was much easier to find manpower to help perform necessary duties.
Roby’s roster featured some 40 names at the outset, but the number has dwindled to about 10 now.
“Nowadays it’s difficult to even keep a fire department going, and most of them are understaffed,” Gabriel said. “I think one of the problems is that a lot of people want to be firefighters, but they don’t want to do what it takes to do it right.
“They want the thrill, but they don’t want to do the work.”
Doing it right these days means keeping up with a constant ebb and flow of change, which requires hours of training. In more than two decades of fighting fire, Gabriel witnessed many changes.
“Especially in equipment and technique,” he said. “But even fires changed, because of the different materials being used in homes and vehicles.”
One of the most memorable calls Gabriel responded to was a big wildfire at Roby Lake.
“That burned a lot of acres,” he said. “We managed to avoid having it burn any homes – partially by good luck, but we worked hard at it, too.”
Gabriel and his cohorts halted the progress of the blaze at Slabtown Road, and the United States Forest Service used aircraft and other means to snuff it as it moved through the adjacent wilderness.
Another memory Gabriel takes with him is the way the Roby Fire Department got off to a bit of a rough start. A fire truck caught fire and was destroyed while responding to the department’s first-ever call.
“It went up so fast the guys couldn’t even get their personal belongings out,” Gabriel said. “The truck was a total loss.”