Firefighters and children with serious illnesses both have to be brave all the time. For the past five years, Mount Clemens Fire Department Chief Dan Reynolds supports those kids in their brave fights by becoming a clown.
“I volunteer for the Shrine Circus,” Dan tells me. “I’m a member of the Detroit Shriners, which provides medical treatment to really sick kids. Kids deserve somebody in this crazy world going to bat for them.”
Dan’s clowning raises funds for the 22 Shriner hospitals throughout the United States, so families with financial challenges never have to choose to not treat their child.
“My clown is actually a firefighter character,” Dan explains, “so it’s a good way to carry the fire safety message to the younger demographic.”
Dan attended an evening clown college in 1999, where he learned everything from how to apply makeup to magic and juggling. His clown’s name? Toejam.
“I would describe Toejam as kind and helpful—just not too bright,” Dan says lightheartedly. “His fire engine—Engine No. 1/4!—has just a bucket labeled "Wet Stuf.”
Toejam appears in all 18 local Shrine Circus performances.
“It’s great when I talk with people I actually know and they don't recognize me,” Dan says. “That happens at least once at every circus. In one life role I'm very serious, and in the other I'm anything but serious.”
When he’s not making his community smile, Dan is doing the very serious business of running the Mount Clemens Fire Department. The department has a proud history dating back to 1888, back when the horse-drawn, steam-powered fire engines were used, and fire alarms were only on streetcorners.
The department built its own headquarters, the Mount Clemens Fire Department and Engine House at 65 Market Street, in 1909, and served the city from there for the next six decades. Now an office building, the 1909 facility has been historically preserved. The Mount Clemens Fire Station, the official name of the department's home since 1967, features a striking mural designed by local mother-artist team Angelika and Alana Wynes; the mural is part of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Partners in Public Art initiative.
When Dan arrived, Mount Clemens hadn’t had a fire chief in over two decades.
“There are almost no fire departments in the United States that don't have an executive officer, the policy maker,” Dan informs me. “They did an admirable job for 20 years. Now I get to bring in modern innovations that help make us even safer.”
That includes tools like thermal imaging cameras, which allow firefighters to see through smoke, and portable battery-operated Jaws of Life units.
“One thing hasn’t changed,” Dan adds. “The commitment and bravery of those holding the title of Mount Clemens firefighter.”
The department has also partnered with Mount Clemens Kiwanis to distribute smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. “My personal goal is a working smoke detector on every floor of every house in Mount Clemens,” Dan declares.
Though Dan's leading the department into the future, he makes sure I understand he isn’t doing it alone.
“There’s an entire fire department here that much, if not all, of the credit really should be directed to,” Dan notes. "Without them, I can’t make the positive changes I’m trying to make.”
That department includes Lieutenant Tony Kirkum, a third-generation Mount Clemens firefighter. Tony's father and grandfather were both volunteers, and both rose to the rank of Volunteer Chief. Kenneth D. Kirkum Memorial Park in Mount Clemens is named after his firefighter father. Following in their footsteps, Tony began as a MCFD volunteer in 1993 and has been a full-fledged Mount Clemens firefighter for 23 years.
After telling me about Tony, the veteran, Dan also mentions relative newcomer Jacob Piper.
“He’s 24, been with us just over a year, came to us after four years in the Navy as a Master at Arms,” Dan informs me. “Jacob is the next generation of Mount Clemens firefighter. He still has much to learn and experience to gain, but he’ll be a leader in the department in the future. Always smiling, always eager to do the hardest jobs on every emergency incident he responds to. He is just the type of personality the fire department requires: strong character and great fortitude.”
Firefighting requires heroism on a daily basis. I ask Dan to define heroism.
"The ability to move forward and do your job, in spite of being scared—that’s what heroism is,” Dan declares. “There’s many times throughout my career where I've been nervous, I’ve been scared, but we were able to keep moving forward and get done what we needed to get done.”
I ask Dan when he was most scared on the job; he describes a Clinton Township fire that began with an explosion so intense, my publisher initially believed it was a terrorist attack.
“That was probably the most dangerous fire that I've seen in my career,” Dan recalls. “Projectiles were flying in all directions. There was a fatality a quarter of a mile away. So that speaks to the danger that not only the first responders, but the whole community was faced with. Shrapnel was found over two miles away. And when we say shrapnel, they were not pieces of metal. We're talking about steel canisters that flew two miles before they landed. Our firefighters operated at great personal risk.”
What was their strategy in taking on such a blaze?
“It became apparent almost immediately that the building would be a loss,” Dan replies. “It was really about not allowing it to spread. So the operational positioning was all defensive and that was still at great risk. They backed up as far as they could, but you’ve got to be close enough to apply water to the fire. Every second of that incident was dangerous.”
Amazingly, only one firefighter was injured.
“The incident commanders did an excellent job,” Dan notes. “Our ladder truck did take a beating, but little scars equal character.”
I’ve told Dan this is our ‘thankful’ issue, so I close by asking what he’s thankful for.
“I am the luckiest guy on earth.” Dan is beaming. “I got to do the job that I've wanted to do since I was five years old. I wish that I could become a young man again, so that I could do the whole thing over from day one. Being a firefighter has truly been a blessing. It's not the easiest job in the world at times, and I'm certainly not doing it for the money, because you'll never get rich doing this. But my level of personal satisfaction and fulfillment is off the charts. I just know that this is why I'm on the planet, to be honest with you.”
I ask Dan what he means by ‘this;’ he means both firefighting and clowning.
"I'm in service to all of humanity,” Dan says. “Both at work and outside of work: I want to be remembered as somebody who stood up and did the right thing.”
To illustrate, Dan tells me about Toejam giving a uniquely challenged child a balloon; the story leaves us both in tears. After he collects himself, Chief Reynolds finishes: “I want my story to be that I was good to people. I helped. We're only here for a temporary time, brother, so make it worth it, right?”
"The ability to move forward and do your job, in spite of being scared—that’s heroism."
When the Mount Clemens Fire Department began in 1888, they used horse-drawn, steam-powered fire engines.