Friends thank Fire Chief Mouser

Friends, and co-workers from the Sisters/Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District said "thank you" to Don and Carole Mouser at a special dinner on December 11.

Don Mouser retired after 33 years with the department, 22 years as chief. The gathering on Friday also celebrated the service of Carol Mouser, an Emergency Medical Technician with the RFPD, who volunteered thousands of hours of service.

RFPD Board Chairman Greg Brown noted that when Mouser became chief in 1976, the district had four pieces of used equipment. Today, the Sisters/Camp Sherman area is protected by 21 fire and emergency vehicles.

The chief was the first and only paid employee in 1977. Today there is a paid staff of six, with two more to be added next year. Still, Brown said, it is volunteers who have made the Sisters/Camp Sherman Fire District.

Brown noted that both Don and Carol Mouser were responsible for saving many lives and experienced sorrow as friends and neighbors died.

But many of Don Mouser's accomplishments were outside of the department, according to those wishing the couple well. Robert Panuccio, the state fire marshall, noted that Mouser also served as the fire defense board chief, coordinating resources and suppression of a group of major fires, including the Skeleton Fire in Bend.

Dave Reiss of Sisters drew a smile from the crowd when he remembered how he and Mouser had used the fire department water tanker one year to water the Little League playing field.

One of the players from those early years of Little League, when Mouser was coach, noted that the team was thrown out of the Redmond league because they so dominated the other teams.

Reiss, who shares Mouser's affection for old cars and hot rods, gave the chief a wooden model hot rod fire truck. It will join Mouser's collection in the living room of his home.

That truck was one of many gifts. Representing the volunteers, Dave Moyer presented Mouser with a spectacular shadow box display of badges and pins that highlighted Mouser's career with the department.

John Pagano celebrated Carol Mouser's presence of mind and ability to smile in the face of difficult emergencies, and shared memories of being "in the back of an ambulance with a Mouser on the way up the Santiam Pass at 2 a.m., when it was snowing, with a Mouser at the wheel."

Don and Carol were clearly moved by the outpouring of good wishes from more than 125 people who came to thank them for their contributions to the Sisters community.