Longtime Lemon Grove Firefighters Bring 'History Alive'

If you live in Lemon Grove, chances are Thom Rosenberger or Charlie Lewis has helped you or your neighbor. Combined, the two have more than 80 years experience as Lemon Grove firefighters.

Therefore, it wasn't a surprise that one of the community members they've helped was in attendance at Thursday evening’s “History Alive” lecture. 

The audience member called 911 after she lost the ability to concentrate on what she was reading one morning in the early 2000s. She had experienced the beginning signs of a stroke, she said. Lewis was one of the responders who arrived at her home.

“By the time I got to the hospital, I couldn’t talk. I could hear and I could think, but I could not get anything out,” she told the crowd at the H. Lee House Cultural Center. “Every time I see them at Albertsons or Henry's or going down the street, I just say, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’

“That’s why I love Charlie so much. He was there…I see Tom and I love him. Every time I see a fireman, I have to hug them.”

About 40 people filled the room for the "Thom and Charlie Show,” which was presented by the Lemon Grove Historical Society.

The pair, who have worked together since the 1970s, talked about their background, their careers and the history of the Lemon Grove Fire Department. Although they both retired in 2004, they’re back at the department as part-time, contract workers.

Born in 1950, Rosenberger and his family moved to Lemon Grove in 1952. After graduating from Mount Miguel High School, he took firefighter classes at Miramar College and joined the Navy Reserve before signing on with the fire department in 1970.

Lewis, born in 1949, moved with his family to La Mesa in 1955, and then to Spring Valley a few years later. After he graduated from Mount Miguel High School, he took classes at Miramar College and Grossmont College.

At 18, he joined the fire department on North Island. He was hired at the Lemon Grove Fire Department at 20.

“I stated at a young age and stuck with it a long time—a very long time,” Lewis said.

Rosenberger and Lewis said there have been many changes at the department since they were first started.

Breathing apparatuses, Rosenberger explained, used 100 percent oxygen.

“100 percent oxygen—if you know anything about fire, you know that’s not good,” he said.

Because firefighters exhale a lot of the oxygen they breathe in, they risked becoming “a human fireball by exhaling.”

In addition, their peers looked down on them if they used the equipment, he said.

“You were considered a chicken if you wore those things,” he said. “You needed to get in there and suck that smoke up. Well those guys are all dead.”

Rosenberger said today’s breathing apparatuses, which were developed by NASA, use air. They are also much more lightweight, by about 10 pounds. 

Lewis explained that the Lemon Grove Fire Department was one of the first departments in the county to obtain a Hurst Tool—the “Jaws of Life”—used to rescue people trapped in cars.

He recalled using the equipment to help save a man trapped in an overturned semi-truck near Cottonwood Golf Club in El Cajon.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and Spring Valley Fire Department had worked for about an hour until they called the Lemon Grove Fire Department, he said.

“By the time we went out there, all the [TV] cameras were there,” Lewis said. “We went up there, used our brand-new tool and popped him out within five minutes. From then on, everybody around us was starting to get them.”

The old equipment could lift about 10,000 pounds, and today’s equipment can lift about 25,000 pounds, he added.

Rosenberger also talked about personal fire shelters, or “shake 'n' bakes.”

As a last resort, firefighters use the shelters to protect themselves.

“You can’t outrun these things,” Rosenberger said about wildfires.

The shelters used to be made out of aluminum foil and cost about $60-$90 each. Now more advanced, they cost about $360 each, he said.

“If it saves one person, it’s worth it,” Rosenberger said.

The Lemon Grove Fire Department has undergone many changes since it formed in 1952, Rosenberger said. The department has been managed by the City, and at one point, it was contracted to the San Miguel Fire Department, Rosenberger said. Last year, the cities of Lemon Grove, La Mesa and El Cajon agreed to co-manage fire and emergency medical services as Heartland Fire & Rescue.

Of all the equipment and personnel changes, Lewis said the addition of paramedics has helped the department the most.

When he started at the department in 1970, Lewis said they received about 300 calls a year. Now, they receive about 3,500 calls a year, he said.

“When you see these guys go to the store in a fire engine, everybody wants to know, ‘Why are they taking a big fire engine to the store?’” he said. “When they’re at the store, many times they get a call. They don’t have time to go back to the station for a medical aid or a structure fire. They take everything with them. It’s very, very important for them to get to that call in the fastest time possible.”

Lewis added that today’s firefighters don’t have time to do fire inspections. Thus, he and Rosenberger returned to work shortly after retirement to help conduct fire inspections. They also travel throughout the county to educate the public about fire safety.

Lewis returned for what he said was supposed to be about six months, but has ended up being six years—so far.  Rosenberger followed him about a year later.