Longtime chief of Cassville Volunteer Fire Protection District set to retire

For more than 30 years, local businessman Millard Andrews has served as chief of the Cassville Volunteer Fire Protection District, an era that will come to a close in coming weeks.

Chief Andrews announced his retirement at the October meeting of the District’s board, and at the board’s request, is remaining in his post until a replacement is selected, likely at the end of January.

A retirement reception was held on Friday at the Cassville Fire Station No. 1, where Andrews was greeted by numerous co-workers, friends and family who have been involved in his multi-decade leadership of the District from two separate entities to one tax-supported District in strong financial standing.

“All our equipment is paid for and we are totally out of debt, so I thought it was a good time to hand it over,” Andrews said. “The board asked me to stay on until they pick a new chief, so I’ll be retired as soon as they tell me. This has been a huge part of my life the past 40-plus years, so I’m going to miss it. But, we’ll see what God has planned in store for my future and go from there.”

Andrews graduated from Cassville High School in 1968 and went to school at United Electric in Kansas City, where he became interested in becoming a firefighter. He moved back to Cassville in the 1970s, but was unable to join the firefighting service immediately.

“I couldn’t get on because I lived out of town and couldn’t hear the fire whistle on the square,” he said. “So, I moved into town, and in about 1979 I came on, and in the early 1980s, they asked me to be chief. I thought about it for a few months — the rest is history.

“I just let God be my guiding light and tried to help people in need.” At the time when Andrews took over chief from Barney Anderson, there were two departments, each with its own equipment, housed in the same building, the City of Cassville and Barry County Rural. Andrews replaced Anderson at the City of Cassville department, then Rural Chief Nolan McNiell named Andrews the Rural chief, as well.

“We had needs, and in order to meet them, we needed grow into a [combined] tax district,” Andrews said. “The community supported us, and we’ve had a great board since the beginning. The rural and city districts blended in well.”

Though the structure of the District changed, the structure of its firefighters didn’t. Andrews, who owned Dean Andrews and Son Automotive until just a few years ago, was one in a line of many business owners who also fought fires.

“They’ve long passed, but buys like Max Fields, Charlie Vaughn, Bill Ward and Barney Anderson, they were my mentors and taught me a lot,” Andrews said. “They all ran their own businesses and had a similar desire to help others, as I was led to do.

“When the whistle blew, they took off from wherever they were to fight fires. All my predecessors and people I looked up to were businessmen with a desire to help the community, and the community always backed us in our endeavors.”

Andrews said that dedication filtered down to the volunteer firefighters, as well.

“The personnel is all very dedicated and on the same page, and they leave their homes, jobs or families in every situation — it’s truly a volunteer fire department.”

Andrews said over the past four decades with the district, there were too many memories and moments that none specifically rose to the top of his mind.

“Every situation turned out good, and we are thankful for the ones that do,” he said. “It’s the feeling of going out and helping someone in need. We give our all, and we advocate for and work with other fire departments.”

Part of that work with other fire districts includes establishing the Barry County Fire Chiefs Association, which allows districts to collaborate and co-op trainings.

Larger fires Andrews oversaw included at current location of The Rib in the 1980s, at Tomblin’s and the current Whitley Pharmacy building in 1987, at McDonald’s in 2013 and at Mercy Hospital in 2021. At the time of the Hall Theatre fire in 2022, Andrews was out of town due to a family responsibility. With time as a tax district and improved equipment, Andrews said the District is in its best position to fight fires big and small.

“We started out with not much equipment, and no one else in the county had much either,” he said. “We didn’t have any bunker gear. We had three helmets and six coats — most of the time we showed up to fight a fire in whatever we had on.

“And, the water we had on the truck, about 400-500 gallons, that was all we had. When we progressed into a tax district, we were able to get better equipment we could depend on, and that’s made it to where it is now. We also do an awful lot of training.”

The Mercy Hospital fire, which began in the HVAC system, is an example of the benefits of upgraded equipment.

“We contained it in the HVAC system, and that’s because we had the equipment, like our ladder truck, to put it out,” he said. “If we didn’t have that, we would have had to wait on Monett’s.”

Also upgraded is the alert system for firefighters, though the old fire whistle still stands behind the Hall Theatre building.

“When I moved into town in 1979, we had a bank of 10 phones in homes, so if you rang the fire number, that’s where it would go,” he said. “There was a red push button on the phone that would set off the fire whistle. Later, we transitioned to pocket pagers, and in the mid- to late-1990s, we moved to radios with pagers built in.”

As he is preparing to turn over his radio, Andrews said the credit for his and the District’s success is majority due to the volunteers and the community.

“I want to thank the local people for supporting the Cassville Volunteer Fire District and thank all the ones on the department who have come and gone, and those who carry on,” he said. “I appreciate them very much and want to say thank you.”