And it’s a beautiful axe, too. It has a shiny blade and all of the Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue firefighters signed the handle.

The axe was given to Ernie Rosenkranz who retired last month after 26 years as a volunteer firefighter on Central Whidbey Island.

Rosenkranz began volunteering for the Coupeville Fire Department in 1979. He decided to volunteer after seeing firefighters respond to a fire at a Front Street business. During that incident he was inspired when he saw 85-year-old Dan Wiggens tugging a heavy fire hose.

“Boy, if he could do that, I thought I could,” Wiggens recalled.

He originally planned to volunteer for only a few years. However, the years eventually became decades and he saw the department change and eventually merge into the district that is now responsible for all of Central Whidbey Island.

Rosenkranz said when he started volunteering that he would have to grab a push broom and use it to hold up the garage door at the Coupeville Fire Station while the truck left the building. He said fixing the garage door was one of the first things he accomplished when he started firefighting.

Rosenkranz said volunteer firefighting has gotten safer over the years.

“When I started out, we’d grab our hat and coat and hop on the back of the fire engine,” Rosenkranz said during an interview at his victorian home in Coupeville. Nowadays firefighters are required to ride in the truck and the training is more extensive.

Volunteers now are required to attend training at least once a week. For firefighters on Central Whidbey, that means attending two-hour training sessions every Monday evening.

Ernie isn’t the only Rosenkranz who volunteered as a firefighter on Central Whidbey. Two of his three sons, Scott and Pete, went through the high school program where they learned virtually every aspect of firefighting.

“They could do everything a regular firefighter could do except drive an engine,” Ernie said.

When they attended class at Coupeville High School, both boys had special parking places so they could easily respond to calls when their pagers went off, Rosenkranz said.

His children’s experience proved invaluable when they went to college at Washington State University. They participated in the resident firefighter program at WSU, which helped finance their education.

“It was really almost a family thing with them,” Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue Chief Joe Biller said. “He is just a good guy and his family has treated the fire district real well.”

Chief Biller added that it’s not uncommon for families to volunteer as firefighters. Those can be parent and child or husband and wife. Three families currently have more than one member volunteering as firefighters on Central Whidbey.

In addition to helping save houses from burning down, Rosenkranz enjoyed the people he volunteered with throughout his 26 years.

He said his adrenaline would shoot up when his pager would go off at 2 in the morning. He said his family’s support was crucial in volunteering for such a long time.

Unfortunately one major member of Ernie’s family didn’t get to see his retirement ceremony. Ernie’s wife, Margaret, died in May 2004 from breast cancer.

“She was very supportive,” Ernie said. They had been married for 43 years.

Even though he still volunteered, his duties with the fire district diminished in recent years. He would drive the fire engine and operate the pump during calls.

Rosenkranz retired after working in contract management at the Naval Air Station. He lives in his long-time home on Madrona Way. He recently renovated his kitchen and in his house are dolls his wife collected and the numerous clocks that Ernie is fond of. He collects clocks because he enjoys their mechanical intricacies. He tried to count the clocks in his house once, however he gave up when the count reached 230.

When he’s not working on his house or tinkering with tools, he is an avid square dancer. In the future, he plans to make periodic visits to the fire station where he spent so much time, especially when the fire district gets new equipment.