Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gurdon Fire Chief retires after 33 years of service

After 33 years of fighting fires, Tillman "Jake" McBride said the one thing they all had in common was heat.

"Everyone of those fires I went to was hot," he joked on Thursday. "I handed my letter of resignation in to the City Council Monday night, after more than 10 years at that post, because I felt like I had accomplished for the fire department about all I set out to do and it was just time to retire."

McBride said he started out as a fire fighter for Gurdon, was promoted to captain and then to assistant chief.

"When my old chief, Carl Flowers, retired about a decade back, I became the Gurdon Fire Chief," McBride said.

During his time as chief, McBride's crew received a new truck in 1995, a freight liner pumper with the ability to pump 1,500 gallons of water per minute.

This put the volunteer fire department at three trucks total, in addition to one rescue vehicle.

At present, McBride has 13 volunteer firemen. He said it has been as high as 20.

McBride recalled how he got involved with being a local fire fighter. He said it started when a downtown store in Gurdon caught on fire.

"It was many years ago and I was running the then Kerr McGee gas station on the corner," he said. "Virgil Smith was the fire chief and he asked me to help. I noticed they had what looked like 300 miles of fire hose and seemed to need a hand. I helped and the rest is history."

On a more recent note, McBride was instrumental in getting Gurdon's ISO fire insurance rating down from a seven to a five. This gave a significant insurance price break to local home owners.

"Now I will still be working at Palmer's Service Center, where I've worked on vehicles for four years," he said.

McBride said in his 33 years of firefighting he had never personally had to go into a blaze to attempt to save someone's life.

"We' ve been lucky," he said. "There was one grown man killed in a fire, that was said to have started here with an electric heater. But I think that happened before I started fighting fires."

At City Council Monday, the mayor and Council members thanked McBride for his many years of hard work and service to the Gurdon Volunteer Fire Department.

Tambra Childres, recorder and treasurer, said a new fire chief will be selected sometime in the next few weeks.

"We may have the volunteers take a vote and then get the mayor to confirm their choice," she said. "It is all up in the air just now."