Franks retires from full-time service with the ROFD

A long time member of the Red Oak Fire Department has retired from full time duty.
Matt Franks, a firefighter with Red Oak for more than two decades, retired Aug. 1. Franks has lived in the Essex community since December 1977. Franks said one of his driving inspirations for becoming a firefighter was because of his father.
“I was only about 3 or 4 years old at the time, and my father was a police officer in Red Oak. He also was on the fire department in Red Oak as a volunteer while serving as a full-time police officer. That’s where I first got into the siren going off and dad taking off,” Franks said. “It got to the point where I got big enough that I could pull his coat off the hanger and have his boots ready for him. I couldn’t reach his helmet on the top shelf, however.”
Another reason for the decision, Franks said, was the popularity of the T.V. show “Emergency.” Franks said it was an analogy that he’s heard a lot.
“That was a big motivator. I started watching that show when I was a kid, and I decided I was going to be just like its lead characters, Johnny and Roy,” stated Franks.
Franks served as both a firefighter and as part of the EMS personnel. Franks said the training varies from department to department, and his firefighter training was quite literally a ‘trial by fire.’
“As a firefighter, my initial training was a fire. I put on my helmet, coat, and boots and jumped in with the other guys and they showed me what to do. That was in Essex in 1987. It was the day after my 19th birthday when I joined, and I never looked back. I’ve always been on a fire department as a volunteer ever since. I was fortunate enough to become a paid firefighter in Red Oak in October 2000,” commented Franks.
Also, Franks said training varied by whether the department was volunteer-based or a professional unit.
“With the fire side, up until the last 10 or 15 years, training was based on whatever the department wanted you to train on. Some of the smaller departments give you your turn-out gear and you do on-the-job training. With a professional department, like Red Oak, you need a certain amount of training before you’re hired. A department with paid staff has a lot more training than volunteers in some cases,” explained Franks.
Franks said medical training was a different style, which had a set number of hours and a curriculum.
“You have to complete a certain number of hours in class, there’s a certain number of skills and skill sets you have to master, and you have to have a certain amount of time in a hospital and ride time to get the certification. That’s been the standard for the whole time I’ve been doing this,” advised Franks.
Before joining Red Oak, Franks said he pursued other areas around Iowa before deciding Red Oak was the best fit.
“I tried out for the Sioux City Fire Department. They had around 900 applicants for six positions, and I was a beginner. I realized right then and there that I needed to get some medical and fire training before I applied again. Then I met the love of my life, and that kept me in the area. I got my firefighter and medical training and eventually got to be part of the Red Oak Fire Department. I think I tried out three times before they hired me,” said Franks.
Franks added the level of camaraderie he had with his fellow firefighters in Red Oak was unmatched in other places.
“I went and worked in other places and remained on Red Oak as a volunteer, and I came back every time. The other places just never seemed to be what I wanted,” Franks commented.
Also, Franks said his career has been a busy one, as in addition to volunteering with Essex and working full time with Red Oak, he served with multiple other departments.
“At one time, I was on five different departments in three counties. At the time, it didn’t pay that well and everyone had to have another job. I had about 20 days off from full-time every month, so I always stuck with Essex, and then I went to work with Adams County in their EMS department a day or two a month,” explained Franks. “When the race track started up in Pacific Junction around 2001, they needed paramedics so I worked there. Also, I was working a little bit in Clarinda. I even got mentioned one time at a state EMS convention where they highlighted the fact that I was working at five departments in three counties when they were talking about the shortage of personnel everywhere. Now, that’s kind of commonplace. There’s a guy in Red Oak that’s currently serving as fire chief in Grant and also is part of the Villisca department. That’s how things have changed over the years.”
Franks has also shared his knowledge of firefighting as a firefighter trainer. He became a certified trainer in 2009.
“I remember it was a lot of weekend hours training to become an instructor. I wasn’t sure what the future held for me at the time, and I knew if there were job opportunities for teaching, I’d be able to have that ability. I learned how to be a firefighter trainer first, and after that, I was eligible to become an EMS instructor, so I got that certification as well. My first year of teaching at Southwestern Community college, I had four people that became paid career firefighters, and three of them spent a few years volunteering with the Red Oak Fire Department.”
With so many years of service, Franks said that he’s had to deal with emotional turmoil from some of the major incidents he’s been at. Franks said his first major incident call really stuck out.
“Back in around 1989, I was called to a fatality crop duster crash. The plane was burned completely. I was about 22 at the time, and I pulled the body out of the plane. My wife noticed I wasn’t sleeping right afterwards. They made me go to a critical incident stress debriefing, and I tell you what, it’s a good thing I went,” stated Franks. “I’ve been to about half a dozen over my career, and that really helped me to understand things. We still use the teams from time to time from Pottawattamie County, and now there’s a few people on the department that are crisis intervention people. There’s no judgement, you cry and talk all you want, and then they help you deal with it.”
Franks said another factor that has helped him to cope with the stress was having the attitude that so many more of the incidents have a positive outcome.
“My attitude has been that we save so many more than we lose. I’d say 95% of the time that we get people to the hospital alive. Only about 5% of the situations are the ones that are the really bad ones,” Franks advised.
The decision to retire from full-time firefighting duties, Franks said, was due to wear and tear over the years.
“It’s a young man’s game. I never thought I’d get old, but my body is telling me that I’m getting old. There’s younger and more resilient guys that can do it with a lot less pain than I can. They have youth on their side, and some of these sleepless nights are a little harder on me than they used to be. I wanted to make it to August of last year, so I’d reach age 55, but I was a year short of full protected-class-employment. I had a colostomy that was permanent, and the department worked with me and got me through this year. I’m not young anymore, this colostomy does hold me back from a few things, but not the important things, but when you put it all together, I knew it was time to retire.
While Franks is retiring full-time, his retirement is unique in the sense that he’ll still be a volunteer firefighter in Essex and Red Oak. While he’s officially retired as of Aug. 1, Franks said he’s still been busy.
“I haven’t had a day off in a week. I’ve been trying to get caught up on stuff I haven’t gotten done over the years, and there’s things I’m trying to catch up on with the Essex department. I really haven’t taken any time off yet. But most firefighters don’t like to sit around. You get your sleep after a long or bad shift, and you’re usually ready to go right back at it. I still have that in me, although it’s been kind of nice to sleep in in the morning. The retirement will hit me here soon, I’m sure,” Franks said.
Franks urged area youth to consider pursuing their own careers as fire fighters or emergency personnel.
“If you think you might like to do it, stop in and do some job shadowing. They might see a bad situation and realize its not for them, but they might see that they really want to do it. Stop in and fill out a volunteer application if you’re over 18, because we can really use the help. It’s a good time for the younger generation to take over and let us kind of pass the torch.”
Lastly, Franks said that there’s been no other job that he’s really wanted to do.
“My dad was in law enforcement for his whole career. I did fire and EMS for my whole career, and I can’t think of a better job to do,” stated Franks.