26 Apr 2020 ‘They call me the fireman’
Story and photos
by Dwain Hebda
Lining a top shelf in his office, six firefighters’ helmets hold silent watch over John Payne, Maumelle Fire Department division chief and fire marshal. It’s a collection that spans 40 years that, combined with the various badges framed and hanging on the wall, tells the story of a remarkable career in public service.
“We had an intern one time and I told her your job is to ask me a question every day,” he said. “One day she smacked me right between the eyes with, ‘What’s your favorite part of all this?’ I told her, ‘Driving with red lights and sirens on.’”
From his hometown of Oppelo (Conway County), where he’s been a longtime fixture in the volunteer fire department, to Maumelle where he’ll hang it up for good in June, Payne has revved the siren and flashed the lights in route to saving life and property across a good swath of Central Arkansas.
Along the way, he’s formed unbreakable bonds with fellow firefighters, educated the public, attended and taught hours in the classroom and amassed enough stories – both humorous and harrowing – to last him a hundred retirements, none of which is more impactful than the moment he knew he wanted a life of public service.
“In high school, I watched a drunk cross the center line and hit a family, which killed him,” he said. “I had taken a first aid course and I splinted one of the other guys’ arm with a magazine. I’d have been 16 or 17, I was a junior. That was when I saw the impact I could have.
“Realistically, what pushed me this way was my draft number; the only year I was eligible for the draft for Vietnam, it was 265 so I didn’t have to go. I always felt like I owed something to my country, so this is how I served it.”
Payne’s tenure in firefighting is staggering, the kind of career you measure in decades, not years. In addition to his 14 years in Maumelle, he’s spent 23 as department chief in Oppelo and was industrial fire chief at Green Bay Packaging’s Arkansas Kraft division for 11 of his 30 years there. He has 30 years as an EMT and was honored as the Industrial EMT of the Year in 1999. His list of leadership roles in professional associations, by which he represents and advocates for his industry, is similarly long and distinguished.
And since completing his degree in fire and emergency response from SAU Tech 14 years ago – followed by the master’s level Executive Fire Officer Program via the National Fire Academy – he’s taught hundreds of hours of professional courses through the Arkansas Law Enforcement Academy and Arkansas Fire Academy. Given all of that, it’s not surprising to learn of the high level of training and technical expertise held by members of the Maumelle department, a culture of excellence he’s helped perpetuate.
“The original chief, Chief George Glenn, put a heavy emphasis on education,” Payne said. “We send three to four people every year to the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md., which is probably one of the best educations in the world. For the number of people we have, percentage-wise this is probably one of the most heavily educated departments around.”
Anyone who does a job as dangerous as firefighting as long as Payne has is bound to have some close calls, like the time a would-be arsonist stuck 35 gallons of gasoline in an Oppelo house and lit it. Payne and his crew nearly kicked in the front door, which would have given the improvised bomb its oxygen, killing all the emergency responders and setting adjoining homes ablaze.
“That was a time I almost died and didn’t know it at the time,” Payne said.
He was at the center of the 2000 fire atop Petit Jean Mountain, spearheading an incident command center that coordinated incoming fire teams and equipment into and out of the action while Blackhawk helicopters equipped with buckets buzzed overhead.
“State forestry was technically in charge of the fire, but they were occupied with helicopters and dozers,” he said. “We set up an incident command center right there in the breezeway of Mather Lodge. As every company would come in, they would check in with us and we would put them in rehab and then have them up on deck and tell them you’re the next one out. That’s how we kept up with that.”
By far the most colorful story Payne tells involves the paddle wheel Delta Queen on an excursion out of Little Rock. The call came in that the boat’s entertainer was in distress and the Oppelo Fire Department and local EMTs intercepted the craft at Lock & Dam No. 9 outside of Morrilton. Payne ordered the lock master to raise the boat to a certain level, an order countermanded by the ship’s captain, so Payne did what any self-respecting public servant would do.
“I became a pirate. I commandeered the ship,” he said with a broad grin. “I said, ‘Lock master I am now in control of this vessel, and you will do it like this.’ Of course, he kind of knew me a little bit and he said, ‘Yes, sir!’ The captain’s like, ‘I’ll have your job!’ And I’m like, ‘I’m a volunteer, get it if you want it.’
“Anyway, we lashed that down and we get on and get the person over and I turned to the lock master and I said, ‘Lock master, he is now in control of this vessel.’ And we turned around and left. So yes, I have pirated a paddle wheeler in open water in the state of Arkansas. That’s a unique story; I don’t think any fire chief can ever say that they ever done that. You can’t make this up.”
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