More than 300,000 people are expected to descend on Sedalia, a town of about 22,000 people, in the coming days for the Missouri State Fair. Nearly a thousand people work at the fair — making delicious fried treats, operating carnival rides, running livestock shows and more.
So, what happens if something goes wrong?
That responsibility falls on the State Fair Volunteer Fire Department, an organization that is now in its 62nd year of service and provides fire response, emergency medical services and training opportunities for the volunteers that staff the department.
Larry Eggen, the spokesperson for the fire department, has been volunteering for nearly 30 years. He said the department started in the Missouri Beef House in the 1960s providing fire education and information to fairgoers.
But, as time went on and the crowd grew larger, the fire department saw the need to create a full-service fire department to alleviate the stress on local emergency services in Sedalia and Pettis County.
“With all those people on the fairgrounds,” Eggen said. “It can kind of overwhelm the local services because they're not used to having that many people to take care of. So, being an organization to keep the load off of them, really helps the local area.”
Eggen said, to the department’s knowledge, it is the sole fully functioning fire department in the country that exists for only 11 days and owns no equipment. All of the staffing is done by volunteers, and equipment is provided by fire departments throughout the state.
The department operates from the day before the gates open to the end of the fair the following Sunday. Volunteers come when they can throughout the week. In 2023, 64 different fire districts were represented, and more than 140 individuals volunteered their time.
“We're the fifth or sixth largest fire department in the state of Missouri during the State Fair, so very unique and still a big presence,” Eggen said.
Eggen said their yearly budget is about $18,000, and it mostly pays for food and supplies. None of the 80 or so staff members are paid — they use paid leave from their own fire districts or their full-time jobs to be present during the fair. Every volunteer is required to be a member of the Fire Fighters Association of Missouri and goes through an application process.
Charlie Peel is a captain of one of the engines and is a volunteer for the Southeast Randolph Fire Protection District in Clark during the rest of the year.
He’s been volunteering with the State Fair Fire Department for about 10 years, since his son, who is also a firefighter, told him he needed to come and see what it was all about.
“The first year I came over and worked evenings,” Peel said. “I decided from here on out, I'm just going to spend my whole time, and I'm not going to work my full-time job. I'm going to do fire department stuff.”
He said the five fire engines in service during the fair are lent from fire departments across the state, such as Johnson County, Holt County, the city of Eureka and more.
Peel added that the majority of calls are for medical attention, such as people falling, heat exhaustion and small wounds.
“We're responding to every incident that happens here on the fairgrounds, whether it be a medical call or an event standby or a fire call,” Peel said. “Anything that happens within this state fairgrounds, we respond to.”
The fire department has its own dispatch office where calls are routed. In 2023, the department responded to 49 calls in a single day, and it has run as many as 200 calls during fairs in the past.
Peel said the State Fair Volunteer Fire Department can run more calls in 11 days than most of the fire departments in the state run in a year. Many of the volunteers are from small, volunteer fire districts in rural Missouri that not only respond to fewer calls in a year, but also have smaller budgets, which can restrict training opportunities.
Roy Pennington is the battalion chief of emergency medical services at the State Fair Fire Department. He’s been volunteering for about five years and lives in Sedalia. He said the volunteers do different specialized trainings nearly every day: search and rescue training, fire control, live burns, dumpster fire control, landing zone training and more.
“Those are opportunities that, you know, smaller departments don’t have an opportunity to get,” Pennington said.
The department staffs up to six ambulances every day of the fair, which are also lent, and they’re on standby for events like concerts, tractor pulls and bull rides.
Pennington said Sedalia and Pettis County’s local services could not handle the extra demand of the state fair, especially because needs outside the fairgrounds don’t stop for those 11 days.
“It's about service to our community, service to the fairgrounds and the fairgoers that come and visit us during these 10 days,” Pennington said. “It's more of a family type of thing, so, you know, it's people that you might only get to see once a year when you come here, and it's always nice to reunite ... and have fellowship and provide service to the people that are here that need it.”
Brooke Herrin has been a volunteer for more than five years. She says the late nights and long conversations are some of her favorite memories of volunteering at the department.
She added that she’s excited to see the department continue to grow and include more women. Currently, it can house 24 female volunteers, but there are hopes to expand that in the future.
Others like Charlie Neubert and Keith Smith said this “togetherness” is what has kept them coming back each year — now just as visitors.
They both began volunteering as junior firefighters when they were teenagers in the 1970s. Neubert is a past chief and commissioner of the department. Smith is a past president of the Missouri Firefighter Association and the chair of the Firefighters Memorial Foundation.
Smith said some of his favorite memories are from the State Fair Volunteer Fire Department. He said he does sometimes miss the work, but at the same time, he’s happy to pass on the torch.
“A number of folks,” Smith said, “have gone back home and gone on to be deputy chiefs, assistant chiefs and chiefs at their own respective department, and that's skill sets that was learned down here.”
Neubert agreed and added that not only does the department create leaders, it also helps people find support and camaraderie in a field that can be emotionally taxing.
“We have a lot of new young people. We want to keep those young people because that's our future in the fire service,” Neubert said. “So, we want those people to come here and keep being part of the state, being part of helping their brother firefighter, help teach each other.”
On Thursday, Gov. Mike Parson signed a bill that provides funding for a new fire station at the state fair. The volunteer firefighters will be together this year until Sunday, Aug. 18.
For a full transcript of the broadcast version of this story, click here.
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