A burning desire

Ted Demoruelle battled dozens, if not hundreds, of fires during his nearly three-decade long career as a Ville Platte firefighter. Like every other man or woman who puts his or her life on the line to extinguish a fire, Demoruelle had a handful of close calls but one in particular stands out.
“I actually made an entry in a house fire located in the southwest part of town,” Demoruelle remembered. “We knocked the fire down not knowing that the gas was still going. While I was in there it reignited and I had to run out of the house. The hair got burnt off my head. That was the closest call I ever had. You get only so many chances.”
Demoruelle won’t have to worry about experiencing any more of those close calls. After using all of his sick leave and vacation time, the former Ville Platte Fire Chief officially retired on July 1.
“My goal was to retire at the age of 60 if possible,” Demoruelle said. “You get full retirement after 20 years and I put in 28 years. I went quite above that. Being a firefighter has been an extremely rewarding career.”
Demoruelle initially became interested in fighting fires from a friendship he developed from Sgt. Floyd Fontenot.
“He was a bodyguard for Edwards and had been a volunteer fireman,” Demoruelle said. “I kind of hung around with him on my days off. That got me interested and from there it took off.”
Demoruelle became a volunteer firefighter back in 1979 while still working offshore. But after the oil crunch occurred in the mid-1980’s, Demoruelle transtionited into fighting fires full-time starting in 1987.
“I really think I liked it enough to do full-time earlier than when I did but the issue was the tremendous cut in pay,” Demoruelle said. “At that time I had young children it was hard but I guess the oil field went and helped me make that decision.”
Demoruelle would eventually move up to captain and then replaced Reinel Smith as fire chief in 2005. For Demoruelle, there is nothing more rewarding than helping those people in need, whether it is rescuing someone from a house fire or giving medical attention to someone involved in an automobile accident.
“It is a very rewarding career,” Demoruelle said. “The pay is not the best but the benefit is the retirement which offers young people getting into fire fighting something to look forward to.”
“He made a impact,” Demoruelle’s firefighter son Jacob said. “He had a great relationship with the paid firefighters and the volunteers.”
Demoruelle has seen his fair share of eager young people come and go as firefighters. He admits that it can be challenging work, especially when dealing with those people who perish inside a burning building.
“Over the years we had several people die in house fires,” Demoruelle said. “We actually lost volunteers that couldn’t deal with that catastrophe. It takes special people to deal with it.”
How did Demoruelle with seeing what he saw in the line of duty?
“It always bothered me for a period of time,” Demoruelle said. “You never forget but you just learn to deal with it as part of the job. You have to remember that the good we do outweighs this type of catastrophes that we have to deal with it.”
In addition to the lives he and his fellow firefighters saved over the years, the one thing Demoruelle is most proud of is the city’s and parish’s improved insurance ratings.
“During my time as a firefighter I became very interested in insurance ratings,” Demoruelle said. “The insurance rating determines what how much residents pay for insurance. I worked very closely with then Chief Smith. One of my biggest accomplishments was reducing the City of Ville Platte’s insurance rating from 4 to 3, and Ward 1 of Evangeline Parish’s rating from 6 to 5. That saved a lot of money for people on insurance.”
Demoruelle also stressed the importance of the renewal tax which is on the ballot for the upcoming October 24 election.
“The renewal failed one time years ago and we weren’t able to have fuel to run the fire trucks,” Demoruelle said. “Without that tax renewal we just can’t operate.”
In the past few months, Demourelle has enjoyed life as a retired man. He and his wife Debbie took a camping trip that took them to Wyoming, Colorado and Oklahoma. He and his wife also recently just got back from a trip to Arkansas and are planning a trip to go visit their daughter Angie in Knoxville, Tennessee.
But just because Demoruelle is officially retired doesn’t mean he won’t be doing his part for the fire department. Demoruelle still serves as a building official for the City of Ville Platte, is a member of a lobby committee for the Louisiana State Fireman Association and remains a lifetime volunteer firefighter.
That all means that Demoruelle isn’t nearly done doing his part in battling fires.
“I am very proud of my service with the fire department,” Demoruelle said. “I am going to take a different role now but I will be doing anything I can do to help them out.”