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Eric Schroeder, Fire Chief of Wessington Springs Volunteer Fire Department is shown at the FIre Hall on Dakota Avenue in Wessington Springs. KRISTI HINE / TRUE DAKOTAN
A sense of civic duty, desire to serve his community and a passion for public safety has been at the forefront of Eric Schroeder’s 16-year journey that has culminated into his new position as Fire Chief of the Wessington Springs Volunteer Fire Department.
In 2007 Schroeder started with the Alexandria Fire Department and it wasn’t long before he became much more involved.
“I found a true calling with public safety. I thought it was my civic duty to get on the fire department and the more I became involved, the more I realized there was a desperate need for EMTs,” Schroeder said, who after starting with the fire department, earned his EMT license. “There’s no ambulance service there — only a first responder unit that would oftentimes be with a patient 15 minutes before the ambulance arrived on scene.”
Schroeder stayed on as a volunteer with Alexandria and in 2013, was hired as a full time fire fighter with the City of Mitchell Fire and EMS.
“I stayed active with Alexandria until 2018 when I moved to Wessington Springs and started with WSVFD,” he said, adding that he stayed with Mitchell Fire Department until 2019.
After moving to Springs, Schroeder married Betsy (Krohmer) in 2018 and the couple bought the bowling alley in town in 2021. Although his full time job keeps him busy, his love of public safety and service runs deep and he can be found on most emergency calls in the area.
“It’s always been a goal of mine to be chief. When I was down in Alexandria I had to act as chief on fire scenes and run meetings,” he shared. “Jimmy (Vavra), who has been chief for 10 years, and I started talking back in October about his new job. Since he was going to be out of town many days per week for work, he wasn’t going to run for chief.”
Schroeder said that he is grateful for the job Vavra did in his decade as chief, pointing out that because of grants and fundraising, the fire department’s equipment and gear needs have continued to be met.
“Jim did a phenomenal job running this. We’ve been able to update equipment right now and we are sitting really well,” he said. “We always have to be diligent of managing our equipment and our funds. Rural fire departments aren’t ever at the point where we can snap our fingers and have a brand new truck in front of us.”
Schroeder shared that he has a lot of ideas, two of which include a smoke alarm initiative and a medical assist unit to help the ambulance service.
“Smoke alarms save lives and it’s something I hold near and dear to my heart when it comes to public safety. Most fires happen in the middle of the night and that alert can be life or death,” Schroeder said. “I am looking at some grant programs that will supply smoke alarms to the fire department to give away and in some cases, we might gather the troops and install them.
As for the medical assist unit, Schroeder said that the effort would help ambulance service calls with lifts and transportation.
“We would roll a truck with 3-4 guys to provide lift assist. And if it’s a major call and EMTs need all hands on deck, one of the firefighters can drive a patient to the hospital,” he said. The guys were receptive to it. We know in our small communities we have to all work together — we all have to be on the same page and have to help each other.”