HPFD is proud to announce we have a new recruit on board – Carleen Kemp. Carleen’s whole family volunteered for a local fire department where she grew up in California, and she has always wanted to do the same. Home was in a very rural area where they had lots of farm animals and her father kept large numbers of honeybee hives. Later she moved to Centerville, the largest town she had ever lived in, and more recently to High Prairie.
Carleen calls herself a “Jill-of-All-Trades.” She has extensive catering experience, as she and her family, along with their neighbors, catered weddings, anniversaries and other parties. Over the past 20 years she has been a long-haul trucker transporting exotic things like rocket fuel, explosives, and vintage cars. Lately she has been renovating wildland fire camp bunk trailers, kitchens and showers and is also pumping septic systems. In her spare time she studies for her Mining, Safety and Health Administration certification for operating a rock pit. In between, she expertly managed the very successful 2016 High Prairie Firehouse Sale.
Asked about her experience as a new recruit, she said she found the department volunteers to be very welcoming and encouraging and is enjoying the camaraderie. Her advice to the High Prairie and Lyle communities is to join your fire department. Also, “be sure to have your septic pumped before the drain field is ruined.”
Welcome aboard, Carleen!