Overview:
After 45 years as Conway fire chief, Robert Baker has passed on the role to his former deputy chief, Christopher Herrmann. Herrmann, who joined the force as a junior firefighter at 14 years old, has fought fires in Conway for 23 years. As fire chief, Herrmann plans to prioritize outreach to boost the volunteer fire department. Baker, who has been with the department for 58 years, looks forward to more flexibility in his day and plans to stay in Conway with his wife.
CONWAY — After 58 years of fighting fires and 45 years as chief of the Conway Fire Department, Robert Baker passed the pager to his “second in command,” new Chief Christopher Herrmann, on Jan. 27.
“The town is really, really fortunate they found a gentleman like this to take over, because if they didn’t find somebody like him to take over, they’d probably have to look to the outside,” Baker, 77, said, sitting across from Herrmann in the Conway Fire Station.
Herrmann, 41, has fought fires in Conway, his hometown, for 23 years and stepped into the role of deputy chief two years ago. He joined the force as a junior firefighter at 14 years old, following the lead of a friend who thought he would thrive fighting flames.
“He got me into it, and I loved it and stuck with it,” Herrmann said. “I like the excitement of it, I like knowing the town is taken care of, and then there’s always the people you see afterwards that say, ‘Thank you.'”
Herrmann said the traits of a firefighter are “ambition, willingness to learn and caring for other people’s needs.”
Baker echoed these characteristics, stressing the importance of compassion on the job, an aspect he did not anticipate when he first picked up a fire hose at 18 years old. When firefighters respond to a scene, they often meet individuals in the middle of their worst days, Herrmann noted.
“It teaches [firefighters] a lot about caring for people that they may not get at other places; it really opens their eyes up to that,” Baker said. “You’re going to find people from all walks of life and when they get in trouble or in serious situations … you’ve got to adapt to that. You’ve got to convince them to step back and calm down, and we’re going to take over and take care of what’s going to be done.”
As firefighters work together in the face of disasters, camaraderie builds between them at the Conway Fire Department, the two firefighters said.
“I feel everybody that works hard together, trains for this stuff and goes through stressful situations always develop a camaraderie with each other, especially when we’ve seen things like the tornado,” said Herrmann, referring to the tornado that tore through Conway in 2017.
Looking back on his 45 years as fire chief, Baker said the highlights are not always positive, such as accidents and fires that spiraled into serious injuries and deaths.
“The moments that stand out the worst are when you’ve got to bury your own people … things you don’t like to talk about, you don’t try to remember,” Baker said, his face still. “You try to look at remembering the good things over the years.”
He mentioned the department welcoming women firefighters in 1982 as a proud moment, after calling his wife, longtime volunteer firefighter Helen Baker, to confirm the date. She officially joined the force with her husband as soon as the change was in the place.
While fire chief, Baker also invited high schoolers to the force with the Junior Firefighter Program. Instead of lectures in the classroom during the junior firefighters’ first weeks, Herrmann said the teenagers learn from “hands-on” lessons.
“You’ve got to make it fun,” Baker said with a grin.
Past junior firefighters in Conway have gone on to serve as fire chiefs, state troopers, military personnel and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) in other towns.
“It’s things like that that make you proud and think about [how] we helped push them a little bit and kept them interested, so they would pursue it,” Baker said. “The juniors really should be looked at as your future existence of your fire department in a volunteer fire department in rural communities.”
As a junior firefighter, Herrmann hopped in the fire truck for the first time to respond to a chimney fire. Watching the firefighters in action, he remembered thinking, “Help out and stay out of the way.”
As he takes Baker’s place at the helm, instead of staying out of the way or grabbing a fire hose and following orders, Herrmann will run the response.
“At the end of the day, you have to take a step back and be less hands-on … and remember what your responsibility is at this time,” Herrmann said.
Given that Conway’s 18 volunteer firefighters are not always available to respond to calls during work hours, as fire chief, Herrmann said he plans to prioritize outreach to boost the volunteer force.
“I do like the direction our department is in right now, and I’d like to stay with that,” Herrmann said.
On Jan. 27, the day after the Conway Selectboard appointed Herrmann as chief, Baker handed his pager to Herrmann and finally turned off the scanner.
“I haven’t gotten used to it,” Baker said, smiling.
Before the pager, Baker answered a “fire phone” in his home. To ensure a firefighter was always ready to respond to an emergency, Baker and his wife Helen Baker stayed home on weekends and holidays, only leaving for vacation one week each year.
Without a pager or fire phone, Baker looks forward to more flexibility during the day for trips to nearby towns as soon as his wife finds a buyer for Baker’s Country Store.
“Once we sell the store, we’ll have that freedom of probably looking at each other and saying, ‘What the heck just happened? What do we do now?'” Baker said, laughing.
Although they have no trips or activities penciled in yet, Baker said they plan on staying in Conway, where they both grew up and met as teenagers in the center of town.
“We’re going to always stay in Conway, because we love Conway,” Baker said. “It’s such a nice place to live — plain, simple and quiet, and a boatload of nice people.”
