Barry "Chet " Wagner
As the second Warden of the crew, Chet was responsible for getting the crew to where we are today. His passion for wild land fire is second to none and there is no other fireman that will take you under his wing and teach you more than Chet. When he starts talking about fire you better have set aside time to talk, make sure your not expecting company, the cows are fed, and the taxes are done, because your going to be listening for a while. He has so many stories and so much knowledge you can't help but get lost in conversation with him. He is a great leader with no fear and always knew what to do no matter what the situation. Seen in this picture with the red hard hat on, Chet always has an audience. Every time he comes around he is the life of the party and the fun never ends. Chet moved out of our fire district to work as a patrolman for DCNR a few years ago and the crew has not been the same since.We wish him the best of luck and still stay in touch, especially around Christmas as Chet is one of the World renowned Glen Rock Carolers and still comes home for Christmas. Wherever he is he is a life member as far as we are concerned!
As the second Warden of the crew, Chet was responsible for getting the crew to where we are today. His passion for wild land fire is second to none and there is no other fireman that will take you under his wing and teach you more than Chet. When he starts talking about fire you better have set aside time to talk, make sure your not expecting company, the cows are fed, and the taxes are done, because your going to be listening for a while. He has so many stories and so much knowledge you can't help but get lost in conversation with him. He is a great leader with no fear and always knew what to do no matter what the situation. Seen in this picture with the red hard hat on, Chet always has an audience. Every time he comes around he is the life of the party and the fun never ends. Chet moved out of our fire district to work as a patrolman for DCNR a few years ago and the crew has not been the same since.We wish him the best of luck and still stay in touch, especially around Christmas as Chet is one of the World renowned Glen Rock Carolers and still comes home for Christmas. Wherever he is he is a life member as far as we are concerned!
Chet was always instrumental in designing, building, and modifying fire equipment. He brought the crew to a new level of "mechanization" if you will. A lot of his own money went into getting this crew more equipped and he never asked for anything in return. Under his leadership we had a Bus for crew transport, an attack truck, a few brush rigs, a service truck, and an ATV. No one in the history of the crew as spent as much effort in building and maintaining equipment. The truck you see here is our current brush truck in it's beginning stages. I'll never forget the call we had in the Michaux State forest when Chet was navigating, Mike Bailey was driving, and I was crammed in the middle. We were using cell phones to communicate due to some radio issues which are common in the district. We were heading toward the fire and we kept having to roll the windows up and down about one hundred times every time we needed to talk on the phone and at one point Chet (who desperately needs glasses) was holding the map upside down cussing and carrying on and by the time he figured out where we were and where we were going he said "TURN BACK THERE!" You never know just what could happen when the wee willies are going around and there's a bumble bee in the cab! By the way if any of you are unfortunate enough to be reading a map in a vehicle with Chet if he starts singing the theme to Bonanza hide the map, he's about to light it on fire! By the way Chet almost looks like he's "CHISLE CHESTING" a bit in this picture doesn't he?
