ALegacy of Service - Ex-Chief Karl Thuge

Having celebrated his 95th birthday, Karl Thuge is the definition of a “life of service” having responded to fire and medical emergencies over the course of eight decades.

Born 1928 in Manhasset as the grandson of a volunteer firefighter in Denmark, Karl would rattle his crib whenever he heard the apparatus of the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department passing by. Moving to Lynbrook in 1939 at age 11, he began buffing with Engine 1 (where he had a key to the firehouse). Joining the Boy Scouts at age 12 (achieving one rank below Eagle Scout), he began his legacy of public service in 1942 at age 13 while serving as an air raid messenger for four years during World War II. At age 15 while in gym class, he and fellow students helped push the 1927 Ahrens-Fox pumper out of the firehouse in six inches of snow to “pop the clutch” when it would not start. On Easter Sunday of 1943, the fire chief approached Karl asking him to recruit 30-35 fellow high school students to form the “Fire-Aids” which he then commanded.

Running medical calls at age 15, Karl would respond with a high school worker who drove while he administered care using a first aid kit and prayer book. Karl joined Engine 1 at age 18 (where he would later become an 80-year member) rising through the ranks (as the youngest Lieutenant at age 24) to serve as Chief of Department in 1964-1965. Having moved his family to Massapequa in the 1970s, he joined Engine Company 4 where he remains on the roster to this day.

Having answered over 20,000 fire/rescue calls, Chief Thuge experienced many major incidents in schools, factories, apartments, the public library, a lumber yard, mutual aids to Rockville Centre and Long Beach and the 1995 Wildfires. Some of his many milestones, including while in the chief’s office, encompassed driving Lynbrook’s 1927 Ahrens-Fox to its last working fire and getting Instalert paging approved for over 240 members, replacing the horns/ticker tape. In 1953, at the scene of a train crash in Rockville Centre in which two trains telescoped at an elevated crossing, he saved the life of a motorman trapped in the cab using a tourniquet while performing other rescues. As a Lieutenant he saved a police officer trapped in a second floor fire. As an Assistant Chief he saved Chief of Department Olgers who was lost in smoke. In 1967, he drove the ladder truck onto sand and threw a double trussed ladder to save a child, dog and resident who fell through the ice. He even ran several solo responses where he drove the rig, secured a water supply and stretched a line. When he stopped actively responding in his late 80s, he continued his service by having his aide drive him to the firehouse to fill a cooler with water to transport to the scene of emergencies, one time even calling a cab to transport him at 0400.

In 1946 when Lynbrook received a new Mack engine Karl, having met the salesman and engineer, asked them for a job at Mack Trucks (where he worked for 31 years) assigned to the advertising department, Karl would arrive early at the Long Island City plant to walk the shop floor and learn everything he could about fire apparatus. At age 20, he began selling apparatus, covering Long Island and later Westchester County where he sold 750 fire apparatus including a 1964 Mack C model 1250 engine to Lynbrook with nine discharges (including two under the front bumper for their narrow streets) to replace a B model Mack that was destroyed in a fatal crash that killed three firefighters and a crossing guard. Following 31 years with Mack, he later worked for Nassau Fire Apparatus for 18 years as well as Hendrickson representing American LaFrance, LTI, Saulsbury, Emergency One, FMC and Hamerly. His retirement party in 2013 hosted by the Coram Fire Department drew 300 guests and showcased the original 1927 Ahrens-Fox he began responding on.

From a boyhood fascination with fire engines to an exemplary life of service to others, we salute Chief Karl Thuge and say thank you for your service!

- Story submitted by Tom Rinelli, 2nd VP/Historian; Islip Town Fire & EMS Museum and Education Center