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Firefi ghting farmer
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PHOTOS BY MARK KLAPHAKE Dale Niehaus holds his helmet Nov. 11 at the fi re station in Osakis. Niehaus is the only dairy farmer at the city’s fi re department.
Niehaus
Howard Marthaler 320-250-2984
Established in 1975 Drainage LLC.
Jason Marthaler 320-249-6062 Karl Larson 320-808-8012
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from page 13
one morning at the World Trade Center, more than 300 fi refi ghters died in service along with other safety and rescue personnel. The images were everywhere in the media for months afterward.
“I thought, ‘What did I get myself into?’” Niehaus said. “It really made me think, do I really want to be here? But, I stuck with it, and it’s been great.”
Training changed in the wake of 9/11. For instance, a system for identifying fi refi ghters was put in place in case they were injured beyond recognition. Firefi ghters now have two metal tags with their identifi cation number on them. If the fi re is big enough where more than one unit is called in, fi refi ghters pin one tag to their clothing and give one tag to the lead fi refi ghter before going into a burning building.
“That’s for accountability,” Niehaus said. “It all stems back to 9/11. The departments all had numbers but not the individual fi re fi ghters.”
Niehaus’ has No. 1139.
“The only other way (to identify a burned fi refi ghter) would be through DNA testing,” he said.
Niehaus went through 160 hours of medical and fi rst responder training along with two nights per week for four months of training in fi refi ghting and hazmat. Because Niehaus was the only one joining the Osakis department at the time, he drove to Parkers Prairie for training.
“I tried to get the chores done before I went,” he said.
Niehaus said he appreciates the support he has had all along to make his service possible.
“I’ve always had special people in place when I receive calls,” he said. “I’ve been blessed that way.”
In the beginning, his dad, sister and stepmother would help cover for him.
“When I was on the farm working with my dad, he understood,” Niehaus said. “He didn’t always like it when I left in the middle of chores or when in the fi eld, but he respected it. Other family and friends stepped in too.”
Today, he and his wife, Rachel, have six children. Niehaus also has an adult daughter who lives away from home. His oldest at home, Clayton and Garrett, are among those who step in for him now.
Like Niehaus did as a child, his children look up to fi refi ghters.
Niehaus page 15
“We are in the land improvement business. We do farm drainage, ag waste systems, site work for farm buildings and silage pads, plus miscellaneous work. We also do county, township, and watershed work, as well as soil conservation work.” - MBC Drainage, Sauk Centre
“It’s not just (toy) John Deere tractors at home,” Niehaus said. “It’s yellow fi retrucks. You’ve gotta have yellow. Sometimes we have to go online to fi nd them.”
The Osakis department has yellow trucks.
“They’re starting to change colors,” Niehaus said. “The red ones are used now for parade trucks. They’re fi nding out that yellow is a stimulant to the eye as a caution to slow down.”
Although Niehaus said he is glad he joined more than two decades ago, he and his fellow fi refi ghters have to deal with the aftermath of diffi cult calls.
“That’s part of it when you live in a small town,” Niehaus said. “It can be people you know, so that can make things even tougher.”
As a farmer, barn fi res also feel especially personal.
“You go to a barn fi re and see a lot of dead cows,” Niehaus said. “It’s gut wrenching to see. The barn is engulfed in fl ames, and there is not much you can do.
PHOTO BY JAN LEFEBVRE Dale Niehaus feeds youngstock Nov. 18 on his farm near Osakis. As a fi refi ghter, Niehaus has had to leave in the middle of chores when called to an emergency.
You feel the loss, but you have to do what you can do to put the fi re out.”
Niehaus said he became better equipped to leave calls at the department and focus on family and work again once he was home.
“You learn,” he said. “There are people who can help you if you can’t deal with it. For the most part, the guys on the department are the ones who help you get through it.”
Everyone on the team steps up to do whatever is needed and is trained in all the jobs of fi refi ghting.
“Generally, I’m one of the guys that goes into the fi re,” Niehaus said. “I’d rather do that than be a pump operator. It’s very stressful, but I’m more of an adrenaline junky, I guess.”
He has great respect for his fellow fi refi ghters.
“They really matter,” Niehaus said. “You all go in with the same mindset. Let’s get this fi re out or let’s get this accident taken care of, and we do what we have to do to get back (to the station) safely and back to our families.”
He also sees some similarities between dairy farming and fi refi ghting.
“It’s a lot of the same things,” Niehaus said. “If something goes wrong, you drop to a plan B or maybe even a plan C. Things go bad, things break, you have bad weather. You adjust to that and have a different plan in farming and in the fi re department.”
Wishing all of you Happy Holidays
