Firefighter Frankie Srubar Tells It Like It Is

Armchair Chats

A Monthly Feature by ELAINE THOMAS

Rural communities depend on highly trained and motivated volunteers like Frankie Srubar to battle fires and respond to medical emergencies

When Frankie Srubar reflects on his 35year career as a Fayette County volunteer firefighter, he voices a single regret.

“I was 33 or 34 years old when I got started. I wish I’d joined sooner,” says the Plum, Texas, native.

In 1987, Frankie had a life-changing visit from Wesley Steinmann, the new chief of the La Grange Volunteer Fire Department. Mr. Steinmann told Frankie that La Grange needed more daytime firefighters. Their conversation took place 14 years after Frankie had gone to work for the La Grange Independent School District.

“When Mr. Steinmann wondered if I’d be interested, I considered it an honor even to be asked. I told him if he could clear it with my boss, Atlan Citzler, I would be glad to join,” Frankie says.

Frankie Was Hooked

“Thinking about it now, I guess I was a little naive. Atlan Citzler was very involved in the fire department. In fact, he was president of the La Grange Volunteer Fire Department for 10 years. Since my job performance was satisfactory, it was highly unlikely he would have said no to Mr. Steinmann’s request.”

Frankie had a rock-solid reputation. The young man, who had worked for LGISD during the summers and half days as part of a high school program, was offered a full-time job after graduating in 1973. Frankie laughs when he recalls his chat with LGISD Superintendent Charlie Lemmons.

“Mr. Lemmons said he wanted me to stay with LGISD and take over Hugo Matejowsky’s job as maintenance supervisor when he retired. I told the superintendent I would if the price was right. Mr. Lemmons asked me how much money I wanted. I said $2 an hour, and he said fine. It doesn’t sound like much now, does it? Back then, it was good money.”

Frankie continued to be regarded as a young man who learned quickly, was eager and worked hard. He scoffs at the praise, attributing the positive comments to his personal satisfaction with the job and the people associated with it.

“What I liked about being on the school’s maintenance department staff was doing more than one thing. I had great bosses, first Hugo and later Atlan Citzler. I learned to do plumbing. I learned to do electrical. I learned to do air conditioning.

“We installed the first air conditioning in the school ourselves. We ran the gas, the electricity, the water and gas lines. We scraped the tar and gravel off the elementary school roof and set the curbing to mount the air conditioning units for the classrooms. I heard we saved the school board something like $2 million on that first installation. Of course, there have been many upgrades since then, but we did the first one,” Frankie says.

After taking over responsibility for the maintenance department, Frankie ran it for 38 years. During his tenure, he also drove a bus for 25 years. While he enjoyed fulfilling his job responsibilities, it was Frankie’s relationships with the kids, teachers and staff that brought him joy.

From 1987 until his 2015 retirement, Frankie answered hundreds of fire department calls, day and night, with the assurance that the La Grange Independent School District backed his participation 100 percent.

Training Key to

Serving, Thriving

After joining the La Grange Volunteer Fire Department, Frankie attended a week of fire school at Texas A&M University every summer for the next 17 years. He learned to fight fires lighted for training purposes and took part in classroom instruction that augmented hands-on education. Years later, he studied fire prevention, as well as completed classes on officer development.

Frankie’s education helped prepare him to deal with a wide range of emergencies, many involving life and death circumstances.

“I learned to respect fire, not be scared of it. No matter the situation, we volunteer firefighters have a job to do. While emotion is a constant, we each do our job the best way we know how and walk away. While we never get accustomed to the tragedies we may witness, we accept them because they are part of the job. On the flip side, if you save a person’s life, you feel great.”

Frankie not only respects fires, he also respects members of the community, demonstrating a genuine fondness for the people he serves.

“Respect for people is the most important part of the job. To this day, I run into kids who are adults now who remember me from when we brought the big red fire truck to the school and did fire prevention programs. A man who lives at Cozy Corner saw me in a store and introduced me to his son. He told his boy, ‘You respect this man. He was my bus driver and he’s a fireman.’ I sometimes get a little special recognition from the elderly, too. I remember going to visit my mother-in-law in the rest home some years ago and one of the other residents called out to me. She said, ‘There’s little Frankie. I keep up with you by seeing your picture in the paper.’ She remembered me because when we responded to a fire at her house back in the 1990s, not long after I joined the department, I was there. What she said made me feel good.”

Lifetime

Friendships

The year after Frankie signed onto the fire department, Frank Menefee was recruited. The two became great personal friends and staunch professional allies.

“We often talk about having a volunteer fire department family and the relationships feel like that. They really do. But when it comes to Frank, he’s family, all right. I think of him like he’s another brother. Frank also is the fire marshal in La Grange and I learned a lot from him in that role, too.”

After six years with the La Grange Volunteer Fire Department, Frankie was promoted to lieutenant. He became assistant chief in 1996 and chief in 2000. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Linda, moved to the Round Top/Warrenton Volunteer Fire Department’s fire district.

“In 2005, the chief in Round Top/Warrenton retired, so they appointed me chief there, too. For six months, I was chief in both towns. Then Frank took over as chief in La Grange and I served as assistant chief from 2005 until recently. I’m still chief in Round Top/Warrenton.”

Frankie didn’t stay retired long when he left the LGISD in 2015. Since he no longer lived in La Grange, he took a job with the City of La Grange in the maintenance department to remain a member of the La Grange Volunteer Fire Department. It was another job Frankie enjoyed immensely.

The Biggest Fire

Of Them All

Frankie was assistant chief of the La Grange Volunteer Fire Department on Ash Wednesday, March 8, 2000, when a massive fire destroyed a number of businesses in the 100 block of West Colorado Street in downtown La Grange. This included the 1885-era Lester Hotel building, whose rooms had been converted to efficiency rental apartments. The China Inn Restaurant, where the fire is thought to have started, had been the Bon Ton Restaurant’s location for 40 years until the mid-1970s. Perhaps the biggest calamity for La Grange was the loss of the Cozy Theatre that had occupied the hotel annex since 1915. Its demise left La Grange without a movie theater.

Other business space lost in the fire were: Botts Title Co., Richard Cernosek’s office, Christian Book Store and Andy’s Barber Shop.

“I got the page at 3:30 that afternoon. I was on the verge of getting off work at 4 o’clock. I got in my truck, left the school and went directly to the scene. The first fire truck was already there because a couple of the firemen worked for the city. When they saw the smoke, they went to the fire station and got it.

“The fire had a 30-minute head start on us. It had already vented out the roof of the China Inn. We evacuated the building and started hooking up to a hydrant to get the truck ready to pump. The fire was burning between two different ceilings in that old building. The construction of those buildings made fighting the fires very difficult. I called for mutual aid and ended up requesting every fire department in Fayette County, plus Weimar. Fayette Electric Cooperative sent one of their bucket trucks to assist because the city’s truck was taking powerlines down to create more working space for us,” Frankie says.

Despite their best efforts, the fire had the upper hand until it was stopped from spreading to the adjacent building that now houses the Texas Quilt Museum. No lives were lost and no one was injured that day.

Frankie doesn’t take his high-profile leadership role in the county lightly. He’s quick to praise the members, past and present, of the 10 volunteer fire departments in Fayette County: La Grange, Schulenburg, Flatonia, Muldoon, Fayetteville, Round Top/Warrenton, Carmine, Warda, Winchester and Ledbetter. Frankie holds retired firefighters with whom he has worked in high esteem.

He also admires the county’s top elected officials with whom he has worked: retired Judge Ed Janecka, retired Judge Joe Weber (who served for a time on the Round Top/ Warrenton Volunteer Fire Department) and Judge Dan Mueller. For many years, Frankie worked closely with Danny Zitterich who served as local emergency coordinator and others who have held that post. He is also complimentary of the support the department has received over the years from the mayors of La Grange.

Ready and Willing

Inherent in the responsibilities of a volunteer firefighter is having a mindset that allows them to respond quickly. Frankie laughs when he relates one of his favorite stories.

“One night, I was already asleep and my wife was watching TV in our bedroom. My pager went off and it was a fire call, a structure fire in La Grange. I guess I was pretty sleepy when I looked at the clock. I thought it was just a little before 4 a.m., so I got up and put on my school uniform.

“Linda asked me what I was doing. I told her I’d just go straight from the fire to school. That’s when she told me I’d read the clock wrong. It was 20 minutes to 11 at night. Well, I was dressed, so I got in my truck and got as far as the end of the driveway when they canceled us,” Frankie says.

“I backed up to the garage, killed the motor and was closing the garage door when my Round Top/Warrenton pager went off. There was a fire in Round Top, so I backed out and away I went. Linda and I laughed about it afterward, but that’s the way calls can come in.”

2022 was not a good year for Frankie. He lost his wife, Linda, and suffered a debilitating stroke. Through therapy and sheer perseverance, he’s regaining his mobility and autonomy.

“I’m no longer assistant chief in La Grange, and although I’m still chief of the Round Top/Warrenton department, I don’t go out on calls,” Frankie explains. “Calvin Krause comes and gets me for the monthly meetings.”

Frankie is anxious to be able to drive again and share his years of training and experience when his community needs him. Someday, he would like to travel to Ground Zero, the 9-11 Memorial in New York City, to pay his respects to all those who lost their lives in the 2011 World Trade Center tragedy.

You can’t keep a good firefighter down.

To contact writer Elaine Thomas, visit her website, www.elainethomaswriter.com or 979-263-5031.