OSFA Directors

Greetings from the Interim Executive Director! The OSFA has finally broken new ground with this being the first edition of the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association’s magazine. This full color magazine will be a much better product, and that will make it much easier to

Ret. Moore FD get people to advertise in this magazine. It will be printed four times a year, and we will be adding new information to this magazine that was not in the old OFSA newspaper. The new OSFA web site, www.osfa.info is up and running as of the end of March. The old phone app is no longer needed so you can delete it from your phone. The OSFA board minutes are under OSFA Meetings. Oklahoma Firefighter Pension and Retirement System information will now be on the OSFA web site. Please login and look around to get familiar with the new site. We will continue to get information added to the site and be able to keep you informed with social media. We are getting closer to building the 1st phase of the Museum Expansion. This has taken several more months to get started due to getting a building permit. If you come by the museum, you will see where the trees have been mulched. Work has begun on the area where the building pad is to be! This will be a 7,200 square foot storage building on the east side of the museum complex. This will give us room to move apparatus in and out of the museum. And we can add other exhibits to the museum for the children to enjoy. The OSFA Legislative Reception was held March 31, and it was a success. I would like to thank the Legislative Committee and OSFA Women’s Auxiliary (OSFWA) for all their help. We cannot do these types of events without your help in setting up tables, moving fire equipment and taking registration. Thanks to all who made this event happen. The Ride To Remember was held April 10. We had 704 motorcycles and people everywhere! This is always a fun time and, once again, we relied on many groups to help. The Volunteer Fire Service Committee, OSFWA and staff of the OSFA who came and gave of their time to make this event a success. This has been a very strange year at the Oklahoma Capitol where we had some bills that would have negatively affected the fire service with the changes that were in these bills. We were able to keep some from being heard. Some made it to the floor in House or Senate, but through the help of many, we were successful in them not becoming law. This shows that when we team up and work together, we can be successful. The OSFA Convention is next month in Guthrie at the Dominion House (602 E. College Street). The host hotel is the Hampton Inn (401 Cimarron Blvd.) and the overflow is the Holiday Inn Express, (2227 E. Oklahoma Ave). It all starts with the ORFA Convention on June 8, the OSFA Golf Tournament June 9 and the OSFA Convention June 10-12. We are looking forward to the parade of the old Guthrie fire equipment and all others that come and participate. I am looking forward to seeing all the retired and active firefighters from across the state at the Guthrie convention!

OSFA Heroism Award

On Oct. 18, 2020, Jesse Baker and his wife Sarah witnessed a collision between two vehicles on Hwy 11. Jesse told his wife to call 9-1-1 and went to check on the occupants of the collision. When Jesse ran to the truck that was heading east, he could hear a child crying. There was a small grass fire around the vehicle, so he broke out the back glass, crawled in the pick-up and was able to grab a little girl. He carried her to his vehicle, where Sarah could care for her. Jesse then ran back to the vehicle, which was now on fire and surrounded by flames from the grass that had caught fire around the vehicle, ran through those flames and was able to free a man from the vehicle. Thank you to Captain Eddie Schultz with Ponca City Fire Department for nominating Jesse and Sarah for this well-deserved recognition!

OSFA Award of Merit

Eight-year-old Reese Hall was presented with the prestigious OSFA Award of Merit by OSFA’s Interim Executive Director Tippy Pierce and President, Eric Harlow in front of her classmates at Morris Elementary school. In August of 2019, Reese was swimming at a public pool and noticed that a toddler was possibly drowning in the shallow end. She quickly alerted adults who were able to rescue the toddler and perform life saving techniques. Without Reece’s heroic call for help, it may have ended as a grim situation.

OSFA Meritorious Award

On April 14, three very deserving emergency responders in Woods County were presented with the Meritorious Award by the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association for going above and beyond their normal realms of duty during the tragic happenings in Waynoka back in January. Alva Fire Chief Bryan Miller, Emergency Management Director Ethan Feidler and 911 Supervisor Ashley Woodall stepped in and helped keep structure amidst the chaos caused by two volunteer firefighters losing their lives in the line of duty during a structure fire in the small town.

OSFA & Museum Staff

Executive Director (Interim)

Tippy Pierce tippy@osfa.info

Administrative Director

Sheri Nickel sherin@osfa.info

Events & Promotions Trisha Chain trishac@osfa.info

Museum Director Gene Brown geneb@osfa.info

Administrative Assistant Madelyn Roth madelynr@osfa.info

As I was driving into One thing that has remained status quo Along with the new magawork this morning (April is some of the membership benefits, and this zine, the OSFA has incorporated 19), the guys on my favor- year’s board has recognized that it is time to a new and improved website in this year’s ite morning radio show improve some of the antiquated resources. changes. Again, bear with us as we identify pointed out that today was That is why you are now holding this the problems that this transition presents. the anniversary of the OKC shiny new magazine in your hands as you Trisha has been working with our web develbombing. read this article. Unfortunately, you no longer oper and getting everything transferred over

Orlando FD I remember that day like have a newspaper to line your bird cage with and adding additional resources. It is easier it was yesterday. The cold but surely you can still come up with one to navigate, and if you want to read minutes and dreary day, the feeling of from somewhere. from the board meetings or if you serve on a fear of what else was to come. This first edition of the Oklahoma Firefighter committee and want to look through minutes I wasn’t yet involved in the fire service; I magazine may not awe you in the way that of the previous meetings, it is all now acceswas a new mother with a little girl who was we hope, but give it some time and embrace sible online at www.osfa.info. As time prosick at home with her daddy while I was the change through this transition. gresses, so will the features on this website. working at the Moto Photo in Enid. If you are looking for the records that are The Oklahoma Fire Service is the best. It was a terrible day, and aside from the typically provided in the pension report, you Whether career or volunteer, I challenge you Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, it is proba- won’t find those here any longer. However, to find anything better than what you have bly the most significant event in Oklahoma you can see everything on the Oklahoma here, and we want you to feel the same when history. Firefighters Pension and Retirement System’s it comes to being a member of the OSFA. We Ironically, this morning while listening to website at www.ok.gov/fprs/ or simply fol- know that change is hard for some, but the the guys on radio, I was driving into view low the link that you will find on the OSFA’s sooner you can start accepting, embracing of the Oklahoma City downtown skyline website. The staff at the pension office is very and seeking change, the sooner you can start and I was able to reflect on what it must diligent in keeping those records on the web- enjoying the opportunities that are out there have looked like that morning versus what it site so that everyone has access to them. waiting for you to discover. looked like today. I grew up in Oklahoma City. I remember the lackluster feeling of having to go down there. My high school graduation was at the Myriad and everyone complained. Nowadays, the effulgent skyline of Oklahoma City draws me in, and I love the jovial sense of pride that I get from living in a state that always rises above and becomes bigger and better when it is just as easy to remain status quo. Twenty-six years later, I am blessed to be surrounded by some the heroes of the OKC bombing. Very rarely does it even come up, and I can respect that. I have heard A LOT of stories about A LOT of calls but the bombing just isn’t something anyone talks about. However, when it does come up, it is to point out the changes that it caused -- policy, attitude and leadership, to name just a few. Since 1993, a lot of things have changed in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Standard has been born out of not only the Murrah tragedy, but from all of the other tribulations that we have had to overcome. It has taught us to unite, come together and overcome any obstacle that we are handed. Fortunately, through the years, the members of the OSFA board, the directors and lobbyists have followed the Oklahoma Standard and worked hard to protect and improve our firefighter’s benefits to be the best in the nation.