Some dream their descendents will come into fame or fortune.
Brian Thompson, 77, of Centralia, dreamed his kids would serve their community. He also pushed them to do so — a push that’s rippled into the next generation, too. After a lifetime of his own volunteerism for Riverside Fire Authority, he now serves alongside his son, Jack Thompson, 45, and grandson Orin Thompson, 19.
The triad serves out of Riverside Fire Authority’s Station 6 on Lincoln Creek Road, about 2 miles from Brian Thompson’s farm. Though mostly retired, he continues custom farming with the help of his grandsons and serving one day a week for the Centralia Police Department.
Station 6 gets between 30 to 50 calls per year compared to the stations downtown getting around 14 calls per day. Yet, in his time, Brian Thompson said he’s been involved in four separate cases where CPR was successfully administered to save someone’s life.
Carrying on his father’s ethos, Jack Thompson said, he’s relayed to his own children that volunteerism is a duty.
“We put the screws to ‘em pretty hard,” Jack Thompson said, laughing.
“It was definitely their influence,” Orin Thompson said, through a huge grin, of his decision to train and volunteer. “But, I think it’s cool to help people.”
As deeply as the family’s legacy is woven into the fire service, it’s even more so in the Centralia community. Brian Thompson’s father, who also volunteered in the fire service, helped build one of Centralia’s first fire stations, and his great-great-great grandfather was George Waunch, the namesake of Centralia’s northernmost neighborhood, Waunch Prairie.
Growing up on his Lincoln Creek Farm, Brian Thompson said, fire service was less of a moral calling and more of a necessity.
“Where we were, if you had a fire, you were going to lose it because, you know, somebody getting here from down here was not going to happen,” he said from inside Riverside’s Harrison Avenue station. “Everybody pretty much got involved. The first group up there was most of the able-bodied men in the valley.”
Now, Brian Thompson emphasized, there are many women he’s honored to serve alongside as well. And as far as being able-bodied, he said, there really are roles in the fire service for everyone.
“It takes more people so that you can play the odds of having people there when you need them. And it's harder and harder to get volunteers,” he said.
But while the landscape may be less rural than when he first got involved, firefighters are more needed than ever, Brian Thompson said. With the growing population of Centralia, he hopes his family’s legacy can inspire more people to get involved with service.
Noting his grandson’s ability to face a fatality collision as his very first call for Riverside and still wanting to come back, Brian Thompson said, “You don't know who can do it until it happens. And it's often not the person you most expect.”
The culture at Riverside, he said, also gets credit for keeping longtime volunteers around. Decadeslong Chief Mike Kytta, he said, has kept conflict between paid and volunteer workers nil, always supporting his teams with fairness.
“If you can promote anything, tell people, ‘Hey, we need you,’” Brian Thompson said. “Please join.”
