Longtime Liverpool Township firefighter retires
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EAST LIVERPOOL -- More than three decades after fulfilling a childhood dream, Carl Pearson is stepping away from his duties as a firefighter.
Pearson's last official day is today.
A fire captain for Liverpool Township Volunteer Fire Department, serving out of the Dixonville station, it wasn't that he just woke up one day and decided he got sick of the community service.
In a nutshell, Pearson, who joined the department in April 1990, said his health caught up to him. "I've gone blind in one eye (from insulin-dependent diabetes), and I'm uncertain of what will happen in my other eye. Otherwise, I wouldn't retire. I just love to do this so much."
"My childhood dream was to be a firefighter," he added.
A 1987 graduate of East Liverpool High School, Pearson was bitten by the bug early.
His father had served in civil defense, and Pearson had lost his home to a fire when he was a kid.
While many gravitate toward the paid, full-time fire service, Pearson always envisioned himself as a volunteer firefighter. "They always had more of my respect. They do it for nothing, and I did it because I wanted to help people," he said.
After working as a corrections officer for eight years, he found himself currently laid off from his job as a glazemaker for Fiesta Tableware (the former Homer Laughlin China), where he worked the past five years, as a result of the COVID pandemic.
Initially starting off at the LaCroft station, Pearson moved to the Dixonville station in 1992.
During his career with Liverpool Township, he would work for three different chiefs and never doubted his training they bestowed upon him.
"Liverpool Township was a go-getter department and they trained me well. I was very confident in what I learned, and their goal always was for the person to be trained even better than their trainer was," Pearson said.
Two of his chiefs echoed that confidence -- especially if Pearson was partnered up with them. His current fire chief, Dave Ward, said, "I knew that if Carl was available, he would answer any type of call at at any time."
Mike Bahen, who currently serves as a Liverpool Township trustee after retiring as Pearson's chief, has high praise for Pearson. "He was dedicated as anyone. No matter what it was, he was there if he could. Carl did not hesitate to go into a burning building. I would not hesitate going in with him, because I know Carl would not leave his partner, going into a burning building."
With their roster of 28 at both stations, Liverpool Township often finds its helping out the St. Clair Township departments (Calcutta and Glenmoor), Wellsville, East Liverpool and even across the river in West Virginia, where they find themselves doing a post of standbys for Chester, Newell and Lawrenceville -- especially during daytime hours.
For a volunteer department that is when they tend to be most vulnerable, as the majority of their platoons find themselves working their day job and out of their jurisdiction.
Pearson will miss the camaraderie, but he won't miss the tragedies. One of the most traumatic for him, Pearson said, followed shortly after LTVFD celebrated its anniversary, and firefighters found themselves responding to a trailer fire in LaCroft. Although they kept the fire from the household of five, they all perished from carbon monoxide poisoning anyway. "It was just devastating, and you never want to see anything like that. A lot of us had children that age," he added.
Though he is retired from the frontlines, Pearson has hopes that he might somehow be able to use his skills in a different capacity to benefit the department and community. However, a lot of that might depend on his eyesight.
He and his wife Teresa have three adult sons, an adult daughter and numerous grandchildren.