Tribute to Brown County first responders

This story is part five of the “Tribute to Brown County first responders” series by Wade Linville (editor of The News Democrat, The Ripley Bee, and The Brown County Press).

Rob Starrett was at a baseball game as a teenager in the 1970s when a traffic crash occurred nearby. Starrett and some friends quickly put their baseball game on hold and ran to see the crash.

It was a serious crash with injuries, and even at 15 years old Starrett felt a strong desire to take action and help the victims. He watched emergency crews with limited resources tend to the crash and the injured victims. It was then that Starrett realized helping others in need was something he wanted to do with his life, inspired to become a first responder.

After turning 18 years old, Starrett started as a volunteer with the Higginsport Fire Department on Feb. 6, 1977 under then Higginsport Fire Dept. Chief Don Maloney.

“It’s a day I will never forget. The day I turned 18 years old, I went down there and told him I wanted an application. That’s when I became a certified firefighter, on my birthday,” Starrett said of the time he approached Maloney to become an official Higginsport firefighter.

Within a few years, Starrett had climbed the ranks to assistant chief. On Feb. 5 of 1985, he took over as chief of the Higginsport Volunteer Fire Department where he has remained as the chief for the past 38 years. Cadet programs were not available in Brown County during Starrett’s teenage years, but he was able to gain a bit of experience as a firefighter by making some runs with the department to help out prior to turning 18 years old. In total, he has been running with the Higginsport Volunteer Fire Department for 48 years, and is currently the longest serving fire department chief still active in Brown County.

Today, Starrett’s desire to assist others in their times of need as a volunteer first responder is as strong as when he started making runs with Higginsport as a teenager in the 1970s.

“There’s no greater reward than helping someone out on their worst day,” said Starrett.“It’s hard to describe why we do it or the reward we get from it, I just love doing it.”

For Starrett, there’s no greater reward than when he or his fellow first responders are able to save someone’s life, save someone’s property from being destroyed by a fire, or to provide comfort to those who are experiencing what may be one of the most stressful days of their lives in an emergency situation.

Take a tour of Higginsport Volunteer Fire/EMS Building and you can see the pride and camaraderie that exists among the volunteer first responders. One wall is lined with trophies from the days when Brown County used to hold competitions between local volunteer fire departments. Starrett misses those days of competition.

Near the shelves filled with trophies are the lockers with names listed above holding the equipment of those who currently serve as volunteers with Higginsport Fire/EMS, and one locker that still holds the equipment of a longtime first responder that passed away after many years of service to the Higginsport community and the surrounding area. Grace Copple served as a paramedic and a member of the Higginsport, Hamersville, and Felicity fire and EMS departments before losing her life to leukemia at the age of 57 in 2019. Making many runs together over the years, Starrett and Copple developed a close friendship. To this day, he refuses to allow her equipment to be removed from her locker at the Higginsport Volunteer Fire/EMS Building, honoring Copple for her service to the community and for the many lives she saved during her many years as a first responder.

“I’ve served with a lot of great people,” Starrett said of his years with the Higginsport Fire/EMS Department.

To serve as a volunteer firefighter or EMT with so many full time positions now available in Brown County and the surrounding area takes a selfless individual with a passion for helping others.

“We have several unselfish individuals,” Starrett said of the volunteer first responders at his department that do it, not for income, but to help others in their community. “It takes a special breed.”

There are 11 volunteers currently serving with the Higginsport Fire Department for the small Higginsport community with around 250 residents.

“We might be small in numbers, but we are big in heart,” Starrett said of his department.

The need for first responders continues to grow, and larger fire/EMS departments in Brown County and the surrounding area operate as full time departments with some volunteers still serving. But the number of complete volunteer fire/EMS departments is getting smaller.

Starrett is thankful to have the assistance of local full time departments such as Ripley and Georgetown to assist Higginsport with emergency runs.

“It’s getting rough on these little, volunteer departments. Getting volunteers is getting more difficult,” said Starrett. “Thank goodness for the guys around us. The mutual aid service we currently have in this county is outstanding.”

Starrett has been a leader among volunteer firefighters in Brown County, serving as president of the Brown County Volunteer Firefighters Association for approximately 15 years before stepping down last year.

As a firefighter/EMT, Starrett said his emergency pager is the first thing he equips himself with when he wakes up in the morning, and it’s the last thing he puts up when he goes to bed at night.

The Higginsport Volunteer Fire Department has advanced over the years to include emergency medical services in 2009 after being gifted an old life squad from Ripley.

According to Starrett, it was the late Bob Frodge, of Ripley, who helped get the life squad up and running in Higginsport. After receiving a life squad, the Higginsport Fire Department wasn’t sure if it could cover the expenses that come with running an EMS service in addition to the fire service. Before Frodge passed away, he started a CD (certificate of deposit) at the bank in Higginsport for the purpose of starting a life squad in the community. As it turned out, Frodge’s contributions to local EMS services continued even after his death, and the funds from the CD (a little more than $3,000) were vital in getting the life squad going in Higginsport.

“It was supposed to be for Higginsport Life Squad, it said on this CD. I didn’t know about it until we decided to go on our own,” Starrett explained.

From the days of packing extremely heavy equipment, riding on the back of the fire truck, and being alerted by the town’s fire whistle to where it is today; Starrett is proud of the progress Higginsport Fire/EMS has made in recent decades thanks to the help of some dedicated individuals.

Higginsport Fire/EMS is now equipped with three fire engines, a tanker, and two squads. The oldest engine is Starrett’s favorite, a 1988 fire engine that’s still in excellent condition. The newest fire engine Higginsport has is a 2019.

Rob Starrett lives in Brown County with his wife, Dona, of 43 years, daughter of the late fire chief Don Maloney. Together, they have raised three children in Brown County.

In addition to serving as the Higginsport Fire/EMS Department chief, Starrett has worked at Milacron in Mt. Orab for 46 years and has served as a Lewis Township trustee for 32 years. On top of that, he also farms.

To say his life is busy would be an understatement, but no matter how busy he gets he will always feel the need to use his experience and education as a first responder to help save lives and protect property in his community.

Starrett hopes to pass along some of his experience and education as a longtime first responder to youger first responders in Higginsport. Becoming familiar with the area you serve can be valuable as a firefighter or EMT responding to an emergency call, and if you live in Higginsport chances are that Starrett has been to your home at one point in time or another during his nearly 50 years as a first responder.

While there are many emergency calls that have taken place over the years that stand out in the mind of Starrett, he recalled one in which a young boys’ life was saved from a home fire. It was several years ago when Starrett responded to a call of a house fire in Higginsport. The man at the home went in to save his young son, handing his baby boy out the window to Starrett. After handing the boy out the window, the man died in the fire.

Starrett passed the baby boy off to some female EMTs who he knew were mothers and would provide excellent care for the child who had inhaled a great deal of smoke, but after handing his son out of the window the man passed out in the home, and what followed was an explosion.

The explosion also injured multiple first responders.

“One of the last things he did was he handed his son to me and another firefighter out of the window in this building,” said Starrett. “He just had a little diaper on, and the last thing I remember was looking at that little fellow’s face and seeing the smoke stains going up under his nostrils where he had been breathing it, and I knew with these three moms in the squad that he would be ok.”

Later in life, Starrett was pleased to get the opportunity to meet the boy who was saved from the Higginsport fire several years ago.

Starrett recalls his times at the firehouse with his stepfather, Dale Hornsby, and credits his mother, Eleanor Hornsby, for passing along the strong desire to help others in need that he developed at an early age.

Like other local first responders, Starrett’s reward from his service isn’t something tangible. It’s not something you can touch or see, but it’s an everlasting feeling of reward he gets from the unselfish service to others in his community.

“It’s something you really can’t describe. I’ve always told my kids to give back, and never forget where you came from,” said Starrett. “I’ve always been the type to want to help somebody, and I believe it’s important to give back to your community.”