Family fights fires Posted On: Sunday, May. 10 2009 07:35 AM By Victor O'Brien
Killeen Daily Herald

You can find Capt. Brooks at Killeen Fire Station No. 8 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Capt. Brooks is always at the station, even if Capt. Brooks is home on the ranch in Florence or at swift-water boat training in south Texas.

On May 2 at 7 a.m., Capt. Brooks was finishing up a 24-hour shift, while Capt. Brooks was set to start another 24-hour shift. Capt. Brooks was also at the station enjoying a coffee, but not working.

It might seem a bit confusing that Capt. Brooks always manages to be in three places at once, but it's really rather simple.

Bill Brooks; his wife, Linda Brooks; and his son, Clay Brooks, are all Capt. Brooks. Clay and Linda became captains on April 24, the same day Station No. 8, dubbed "The Brooks House," opened.

Bill joined the Killeen Fire Department in December 1978 and became a captain in 1999. Linda joined KFD in 1989 after moving from the Jonestown Volunteer Fire Department, west of Cedar Park.

In 1999, Clay made a phone call his father has never forgotten. At the time, Clay worked in construction in Denton and intermittently took college courses while struggling to find direction, he said.

Bill was sitting around playing a game with his in-laws when the phone rang. Clay spoke calmly about a fire academy set to start in Fort Worth. He asked for help. Bill agreed to help, but suggested he join the Harker Heights Fire Academy instead.

"Suffice to say, it was a pretty emotional night for me. It made me really happy," Bill said.

Clay dreamed of being a firefighter as a child, but eventually grew out of the dream.

Later he recalled his father's love for fighting fires and the long-term financial stability Bill received when Clay made his decision, he said.

"I told him I'd be pretty happy because being a firefighter is one of the best-kept secrets there is," Bill said. "Everybody loves a fireman."

Clay joined KFD soon after completing the academy and has taken a fast track to be captain in just nine years.

"Dad's head just gets bigger and bigger," Bill said. "I'm really proud of him and my wife both because they are dedicated to the fire department and they are really excited about their new positions."

Now the Brookses will see each other more often at station meetings instead of just at Thanksgiving dinners. Clay said three Brookses with equal rank should make for some interesting holiday dinner debates.

As captains, they will be responsible for the sometimes agonizing task of sending firefighters into burning buildings, into smoky, burning grass fields and into rising, unpredictable floodwaters.

"I don't lose a whole lot of sleep over it. I know if it's a big event, our people are trained to deal with it," Bill said. "Not a doubt in my mind that Killeen Fire Department is one of the finest, if not the finest in the world."

The Brookses are not Killeen's only pair of family firefighters. KFD employs brothers, Brett and Dale Oaks, Phillip and Richard Bannister, along with father Leebert Jetton and his daughter, Rose DeLaGarza.

Deputy Chief Ken Hawthorne said firefighting has a long history of drawing family members, especially in New York, where for many decades, a person could not join a department without following in the footsteps of a family member.

KFD is a civil service department that requires all hiring be based strictly on test scores and standards, Hawthorne said. When they were firefighters, the Brookses rarely worked together because most often they worked different shifts or were not assigned together to avoid nepotism policies.

While their success has nothing to do with favoritism, Linda believes the explanation is still rather simple.

"It's a family thing," Linda said.

Contact Victor O'Brien at vobrien@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7468.