The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
A LIFE OF GIVING
Marks 70 years of volunteering with Norristown Hose Fire Company
NORRISTOWN >> In an age when firefighting volunteers are getting to be as rare as a 1923 Ahrens Fox Firetruck, David Krier is celebrating 70 years with the Norristown Hose Fire Company.
“No matter where you go, volunteerism is a lost word today in firefighting,” Krier said.
Although the specifics of volunteering have naturally changed with age since he retired from firefighting in 1985, Krier’s “celebration” on Monday, Oct. 14 — officially the 70th anniversary of his joining the firehouse — will no doubt be decidedly low key.
It will begin like every other day, around 6:30 in the morning when the 90-yearold drives himself from the Freedley Street home where he’s lived since 1967 — the house he bought when he and his wife Mary, who passed away in 2008, were first married — over to the DeKalb Street station.
More than likely he’ll take a good look at the sidewalk out front, and if it needs a good sweeping he’ll get right on it.
If a fire call comes in, he’ll head to the scene, in his own vehicle, because, as he explained it, he still feels a need to know what’s going on.
Several weeks ago he rushed to a Kohn Street fire and had to park on nearby Haws Avenue and walk the rest of the way down.
“I go to fires as a visitor now. I have a pager and I know where they’re going before they leave the firehouse,” said Krier, who is known to his friends as “Knobby.”
He’s not sure why he was christened with the name.
“When I was a kid growing up on Cherry Street my neighbor gave me the name,” recalled Krier, who has a son, Douglas, and daughter, Mindy.
Krier is a constant source of knowledge to the guys at the firehouse.
“Dave is good to have around just for the history alone,” noted John Gallagher, a firefighter with nearby Montgomery Hose.
A big-league fire still burning in Krier’s consciousness occurred well before he had even started fighting fires.
“I was only 13 or 14 at the time,” he said. “It was in Jeffersonville at a pretzel factory behind where Temple Auto used to be, on Main Street,” he said. “It was such a big fire I walked up there from Cherry Street to watch it burn.”
Krier’s sharp memory is stocked with details that go well beyond the firehouse, down to Markley Street and his days working part time in the circulation department of The Times Herald, earning $1 an hour wrapping wire around stacks of newspapers.
He is fond of pointing out that his black and white image is part of an industrialstyle mural that has graced a lower level wall in the building that once occupied The Times Herald operation for years.
Krier, whose father, Hadley Krier was a WW I veteran, remembers the day he enlisted in the Air Force: Oct. 8, 1950.
“When you enlist they ask you what you want to do and I said firefighting, so they sent me to crash rescue training, he said.
In 1956 Krier started his career as a unionized plumber steamfitter, while avidly maintaining his status as a volunteer at Norristown Hose.
Over the years he’s held various positions at the firehouse, including president and chief engineer.
Krier’s longtime friend, Joe Pilcicki, a former assistant fire chief at Norristown Hose, said that learning the ropes from Krier was a case of learning from the best.
“I’ve been at Norris Hose for 50 years and he’s the one who taught me how to operate a fire truck,” said Pilcicki, who now documents fires on video. “He took care of a lot of us. Just riding down the street with him you remember so many things that have happened. And he’s such a humble guy,” added the East Norriton resident. “He didn’t want a big fuss made over his 70 years with Norristown Hose. He’s just a good guy and gets along very well with everyone at the firehouse.”
He remembers the night in 1985 that he decided it was time to say goodbye to firefighting due to failing eyesight.
“I couldn’t see the fire plug in the dark,” he said. “The fire was at Norris Hills, off of New Hope Street. I just made up my mind that night I wasn’t fit to be a firefighter anymore.”
Does he think becoming a firefighter is much different today than it was for him in 1949?
“Definitely. They have better equipment now and they’re better prepared. They have to go to classes for everything today,” Krier said. “There’s never enough education today to be a professional firefighter. That’s how much things have changed.”
— Joe Pilcicki