Bruce, Hamman pay tribute to former chief Rick Askey

The Red Oak community is mourning the loss of former Red Oak Fire Chief Rick Askey.
Askey, was born in Red Oak in 1965, graduated Red Oak Community High School in 1984, and later that same year, joined the Red Oak Fire Department. He served as Red Oak’s fire chief for nearly 20 years.
Red Oak Fire Chief John Bruce said he and Askey met when Bruce was still attending grade school.
“My dad was a career fireman back when the fire station was located on Washington. Tom Askey was fire chief at the time, so our families have known each other for a long time. Rick was doing fire truck rides when I was in elementary school. The Red Oak school had the Explorer program back then, which was a sort of work from school program. We could come in and be on-shift with the career firemen, me, Scott Ratcliff, and Chris Cashatt, who are still with the fire service. We did that through part of high school,” Bruce said.
While Bruce was with the Red Oak Police Department, he joined the department as a volunteer firefighter, and later received a fire investigator certification through the police department, working with Askey, as Bruce’s certification rolled over to the fire department.
“Rick was a fire investigator too, and was able to facilitate some of the field work and that type of thing. There were a lot of years of us coming up through it. Rick grew up here, and he devoted a tremendous amount of his life to fire and rescue. He was a very involved chief, and a very good chief,” stated Bruce.
Bruce highlighted some of the stories that have been shared of people whose lives were touched by Askey.
“Dan Crouse had posted on Facebook asking for people to post some stories, and one woman posted that she had been in a car wreck, and she remembered that Rick was the one who was there holding her hand while they were cutting her out of the car. Rick touched a lot of people’s lives and had a huge impact in the public safety arena,” advised Bruce. “He was a go-to guy if you needed something. You could call him and bounce something off him and get his mastery and expertise and get a good, viable answer. Rick also cultivated relationships with the departments we provided mutual aid to. Having those relationships has put us where we were today. That’s grown over time. Those relationships were really driven home, I feel, under Rick’s watch. It was interesting to read some of those stories.”
Bruce added, Askey was masterful at operating fire/ground operations and knowing roles.
“Rick was very good at coordinating roles, and when you’re inundated with mutual aid agencies, you really have to have that kind of person there. The chief should bring calm to the chaos, and Rick was very good at that. He was a good leader. You were going to get the answer, and then you could move on,” commented Bruce.
While serving with the Red Oak fire department, Bruce said Askey was able to facilitate an aerial truck for the department, which proved instrumental.
“Back then, that was the old 135, which played a vital role in the Clarinda courthouse fire that they claim was a massive part of the preservation of that building. He pushed for that truck. Rick was on the leading edge of getting the fire department ahead of the curve. He facilitated the special rescue, the dive team, rope rescue, confined spaces, our paramedic ambulance service, that came from Rick. That was a lot of things that were on his plate, and he was able to make them grow to what they are today,” explained Bruce.
Bruce felt that serving as a firefighter for Red Oak was something that was just in his blood.
“His father was fire chief, and his bother, Randy, was a career firefighter here. When you say his name, you’re going to think of the fire service, and to come all the way up as a volunteer/career firefighter to progressing to the chief’s position says something as well,” Bruce said.
Bruce said when he became Red Oak’s fire chief in 2015, he was influenced by Askey’s tenure, and many of their current practices were influenced by Askey as well.
“There’s a number us that spent a large chunk of our careers coming up under Rick as fire chief.  Our practices that we’re operating under today are not very much changed from when Rick did it. He understood fire/ground operations and the importance of each piece, and knew each piece had to work or catastrophic things could occur. Rick’s system has proven itself repeatedly,” said Bruce. “When the public is viewing a fire scene, they may think it looks chaotic, but when you watch the fire crews work, they’re an orchestra. Things are being done and they’re communicating. Dawn LeRette made a comment after the Nelson-Boylan-LeRette fire that just watching us work, you could tell we knew what we were doing. That has to start at the top, and I think Rick was imperative in doing that.”
Kenny Hamman, a 50-year firefighter with the department also spent much of his career working with Askey, Hamman said Askey was instrumental in establishing what became the Midwest Regional Dive Team, and the dive team was grown from the Red Oak Department.
“Clarinda had a dive team, we had a dive team, and Ringgold County had a dive team, and Clarinda had a situation where they exhausted their resources, so they called us and we exhausted our resources, so we called Ringgold County, and since we worked so well together, it was decided to put all of our resources together and that’s how the Midwest Regional Dive Team was started. Rick was a big part of that,” commented Hamman.
Hamman said Askey’s knowledge and experience helped teach him and others a great deal about fighting fires.
“He taught us old guys what to look for. Safety, plus intelligence on how to read the fire, and how to put the fire out, just the whole system of it,” stated Hamman.
While serving as chief, Askey fought major fires at 4th and Washington streets, which resulted in one fatality; an arson fire at 4th and Coolbaugh streets; as well as battling multiple floods and always served on the front lines when severe weather struck. Askey also provided mutual aid during the Clarinda courthouse fire and the blaze, that burned down the Valley News office in Shenandoah.
Bruce said what he most enjoyed about working with Askey during his tenure was the safety and security Askey provided.
“Now that I’m serving in this role, I really see the importance of having Rick’s skill set. It made you feel confident on the fire ground that Rick had your back and was overseeing things. He had a wealth of knowledge I could tap into when I was coming up through the fire investigation side. He’d worked multiple fire scenes by then. Rick and newly-retired State Fire Marshall John Ticer worked a lot of scenes together. Having both of them to plug into as a new investigator, you can’t put a dollar value on that. Rick had a willingness to teach. Rick made sure the fire department was ready 24/7, 365 days a year. Those are values we still have to this day,” Bruce advised. “I appreciated his confidence and knowledge, and I never felt unsafe on a fire/ground call under his command. You just knew you were going to be okay, we were going to take care of things, and it was going to be done smartly and appropriately. You could talk with him when you needed to. When I was coming up, that was my chief.”
Hamman also shared his experience of working with Askey, and said you always knew where you stood with him.
“He was so good at laying everything out that he wanted, and we all had a great working relationship with him. Working with him on the department was like having a whole second family. We all got along really well,” Hamman stated.
Bruce said one of his fondest memories of Rick was when he accompanied Rick as a volunteer firefighter doing fire truck rides.
“We went up to the Head Start, and my wife was the teacher. He told me I should drive the truck since it was my wife’s class. Well that truck we were in was an open cab and was a stick shift, and I wasn’t as well-versed with stick shifts as I am now. He was trying to be very adamant that I should do it, and I was being very adamant that I should not. There was a lot of camaraderie, and he had a smile on his face,” Bruce said.