Lisa Marchesoni
Posted: Monday, March 1, 2010 3:12 pm

Lewis Baker visits with friends at his 80th birthday at Cannonsburgh. Behind him is retired Christiana volunteer Fire Chief Tony Snook. Photo courtesy of Richard Smith.

Lessons learned from Lewis Baker probably flash across paid and volunteer firefighters’ minds across Tennessee every time they operate a fire engine.

Baker taught firefighters statewide classes in fire pumper, aerial trucks, maintenance and instructor schools at the Tennessee State Fire Academy in Murfreesboro from the early 1970s until the school closed in 2001.

He died Sunday after suffering a massive stroke Sunday. Baker was scheduled to be present March 17 when the pumper operations building will be named in his honor at the Tennessee Fire and Codes Academy in Deason.

Visitation with the family will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and the funeral services will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Murfreesboro Funeral Home.

Retired Murfreesboro Fire Chief David Baxter said Baker was a great friend to the fire service.

“There’s no telling how many people he’s educated in the operations of fire engines, pumpers and aerial devices,” said Baxter, now director of Tennessee’s Bomb and Arson Division.

“He told me one time in my class, ‘some day when one of you are a fire chief, you’ll remember this.’ He was always proud of Murfreesboro Fire Department and what we did and the accomplishments we made.”

Through his pumper classes, Baker taught the fire pump operators how to run the engine properly for the safety of the firefighters at the end of the hose line, the retired chief said.

“Lewis probably didn’t realize how many firefighters’ lives he saved through his educational programs,” Baxter reflected. “Everybody in the fire service was aware of Lewis Baker.”

Whenever a fire department had a question about pumper operations, they’d call Baker, even after he retired.

Hendersonville Fire Chief Jamie H. Steele remembers taking Baker’s classes as a rookie in 1975-76 where he saw the instructor’s discipline, pride and commitment to safety.

“It’s unbelievable how many lives he’s touched” in classes such as officers, instructors and smoke divers. “It literally is hundreds of thousands of firefighters across the state directly affected by his teaching.”

Baker invented a quicker and safer way to load and pull hoses off the back of an engine now used by firefighters worldwide.

“In Tennessee, it’s called the ‘Baker load’ but he didn’t want to name it the ‘Baker load’ in an international publication,” Steele recalled.

Canadian firefighters hired him to calibrate engines but because he had the knowledge in his head and not written down, the Canadian firefighters had to hire a professor to translate his figures to the metric system.

“If I’ve got any success in the fire service, it’s due to a lot of good folks,” Steele said. “Mr. Baker is at the head of that list. I’m indebted to him.”

Steele was instrumental in getting the Tennessee Legislature and the Fire Academy to naming the building for Baker. He hopes Baker’s wife, Peggie, and his children, will be present for the ceremony.

Sometimes firefighters are touted as heroes, Steele noted.

“For the firefighters to have a hero, that’s where Mr. Baker falls in,” Steele said.

Murfreesboro Assistant Fire Chief Allen Swader remembers taking Baker’s classes in 1990 when he became a firefighter.

“He was well known for his pump operation skills,” Swader remembered. “When you went to his class, you knew what you were going to come out with so much knowledge.”

Swader particularly learned about friction laws because Baker wanted each student to have a clear understanding of how friction laws worked.

Retired Christiana Volunteer Fire Chief Tony Snook said he met Baker in 1974 when the fire department was organized.

“Lewis spent literally hundreds of hours advising us on organization and structure,” Snook said. “He taught classes at night for weeks on his own time to train us in firefighting.”

The department’s first truck was homemade from an army surplus truck, tank and fixtures engineered by Baker and the late Russell Fox.

“When people asked what kind of truck we had, I said we had a Fox-Baker,” Snook said with a laugh. “People had never heard of that.”

Fire school secretary Helen Brown described Baker as an old school teacher.

“He was just a good teacher and he wanted them to do right – and do what they were supposed to do,” Brown remembered.

Since his retirement, Baker came by the Tennessee Technology Center that replaced the fire school every Monday to drink coffee with maintenance worker Mike Bailey and Brown.

“I’ve lost a real good friend,” Brown said. “Everybody who knew him thought that. He was so smart and helped anybody.”

Family friend Richard Smith said he met Baker through his son, Kevin, and daughter-in-law, Angie. Baker and his wife, Peggy, made Smith part of their family.

Baker loved watching NASCAR races, Smith noted Sunday, adding, “I know he’s going to miss his NASCAR today though.”