Dean Brunsvold has faced several challenges in 2020, but the Harmony Fire Department was quick to respond, showing him that his fellow firefighters had his back.
On Saturday, August 8, members of the department held a firetruck parade to Gundersen Harmony Health Care, where Brunsvold is currently a resident. His 83rd birthday had been Wednesday, August 5.
Brunsvold’s daughter, Angi Kaase, shared that her father had been out for a walk on April 10, as part of his recuperation from knee surgery, when he fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury. While he was being treated for that injury, a scan in June showed that he also had lung cancer. Since that time, he has undergone five radiation treatments.
Due to the current pandemic, and all the restrictions necessary to protect the care center residents, Kaase said her father has been pretty much quarantined since his fall.
“What’s going on with Dad stinks,” Kaase said, “however, to live and be in such a supporting community, that is going above and beyond to help make his birthday, or just the day in general, a little better and bring a smile to his face, is absolutely amazing.”
When the fire department members heard about the idea to honor Brunsvold, Fire Chief Rod Johnson said they were “all in.”
Brunsvold served on the Harmony Fire Department for 47 years, serving as assistant chief, then chief, and then emergency service manager for many of those years.
“Dean’s life was the fire department,” added Johnson. “He was always active, right up until the day he left. You could find him at the end of a hose or running a truck on nearly every fire call. He loved the fire department, you just knew it.”
Kaase added that once Brunsvold’s tenure at the fire department ended, he continued to spend a lot of time on “weather watch” and reported local weather to the National Weather Service in La Crosse for 27 years, some of those during his time on the fire department.
“Mom is now checking the rain gauge and keeping everything reported,” Kaase added. “Each time it rains, Dad always asks Mom how much we got and she can tell him every time!”
Kaase said she and her four sisters really do think of their father as a superhero. “We are all so very proud of all he has done over the years.”
Kaase recalled how they would be home, all together as a family, and the parents’ phone would start ringing, and then just keep ringing. “When it rang like that, he would just go,” she said. “He never hesitated.”
When Brunsvold volunteered to join the fire department, Kaase said it was about saving whatever needed saving. Over the years he and his comrades saved homes, farm animals from burning barns, farm equipment, fields, vehicles or whatever started on fire.
But once Brunsvold returned home, Kaase said he was always respectful to those impacted by the fires. “He never talked about it with us,” she said. “Oh, he might give us the basic details of what burned and where, but he never told us anything beyond that.”
“But if his firefighter skills didn’t call him away, he would be home for a meal with his family between 6 and 6:30 every night,” Kaase noted. “He would attend our concerts, games, or whatever else we had going on.”
Brunsvold’s involvement in the fire department also went beyond fire calls and responding to accidents. There were Fourth of July parades, department dances, the annual oyster stew event that his wife, Mavis would host every year. “It was nice to see him and my mom participate in all the department events,” Kaase said. “It was a true community for them.”
Brunsvold’s legacy as a fireman continues with his daughter Kaase and two of his grandsons serving on fire departments today.
“My dad inspired me so much that, in 2001, I took Firefighter I and II training and became the first female on the Rushford Fire Department,” she added.
The Fourth of July was always a memorable holiday for the Brunsvold family. They would start the morning off at the fire hall, go to the parade in the afternoon and would even sometimes host water ball fights with area fire departments that came to town for the parades.
“I remember watching him go through the parade in the fire truck and I was always so proud,” Kaase said.
The family would then end the night watching the firemen light up the skies with fireworks. “We’d stay up until Dad got home, playing with our glow sticks so we could tell him how great it was and which ones (fireworks) were our favorites,” she recalled.
Outside of the fire department, Brunsvold worked as a carpenter in the area. Kaase recalled how she and her family would drive down the streets of Harmony or down country roads and her dad could tell them something he did in each of those places. “Maybe he built it, or remodeled it, built cupboards, sided, roofed, added onto it,” she added. “The list of his carpenter skills and the work he did are endless. My dad was a phenomenal provider for Mom and us girls.”
Kaase, along with her mother and sisters, are so grateful to the Harmony Fire Department for taking time to honor her father. “They couldn’t have given him anything better,” she said, “with the exception of life going back to normal.”
Current Harmony firemen, some veterans who served with Brunsvold over the years and some new members who know Brunsvold through his community involvement and from stories told of days gone by, all came together to participate in the fire truck parade.
“We wanted to lift him up,” Johnson said. “To give him a sense of hope. We could tell that what we did was appreciated not only by his family, but we could also tell it touched him.”
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