Assignment complete

Fontanelle Fire Chief Denny Sickles completed his assignment on earth and his life was celebrated Friday afternoon in a memorial service at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, with Pastor Steven Broers presiding.

Sickles had served Fontanelle Fire and Rescue since 1977. In 1996 he became chief, taking over top rank in the department.

Throughout his time on the department, Sickles served alongside many, including several of his family members.

During the memorial service, Sickles was remembered for loving his family, the outdoors, his livestock and helping people. He was described as being a dedicated firefighter, EMT and community-minded person. When Fontanelle last held the Fourth of July, Denny and his wife Debra were chosen as grand marshals of the parade because of how they’ve helped many people in their community in a variety of ways.

Sickles worked at Farmers Lumber Company for 54 years, having retired at the end of 2021. He was known there for helping people and being a jack of all trades.

He was on the local fair board, emergency management board, lamb and wool growers association, Iowa Firefighters Association, and served Fontanelle on the city council at one time, as well as a member of the local Lions Club.

Numerous area emergency agencies brought emergency vehicles to be part of the service and say their goodbye to Sickles. Creston and Stuart fire departments brought their respective aerial ladder trucks and hung a large American flag over Highway 92 on the east side of town before, during and after the service.

Retired Clive Assistant Chief Tony Collins honored Sickles with the Ringing of the Bell Ceremony as part of the funeral. Fire service tradition says that four sets of five tolls of a fire truck bell signifies there has been a death of a comrade. It is a ceremony that dates back to the early days in New York City.

Immediately following that, Adair County Dispatch transmitted Sickles’ final call heard from a lone fire pager in the church sanctuary. After no response was heard from Sickles when he was paged, the dispatcher honored him and thanked him for his service on behalf of all of the county’s emergency responders, saying his final assignment is now complete.Denny leaves behind his wife, Debra, son Tyson and daughter Teresa, and many other family members.

Memories

Several area individuals were willing to share their memories of Sickles with the newspaper, though there are likely countless others, and too many to print in a newspaper.

Ray Stewart was a firefighter and EMT Sickles served with for nearly his entire career on the department. He and his wife, Sandra, told the newspaper Ray was on the department for 51 years and served as chief at one point too. When he stepped down from that role, Sickles moved up from assistant chief and became chief. Sandra said Denny would help anyone at any time and was a great community person. Stewart took EMT classes with Sickles as well.

Lynn Eddy recalls that when Fontanelle and other departments purchased the same defibrillators, Sickles was instrumental in several area agencies getting together to train on them. Eddy, Sickles and others were instrumental in the purchase of fire pagers when that system began in the 1990s.

When Eddy worked at the school as custodian, Sickles would drive by and honk the same way every time. One day when he did it, Eddy didn’t look up. When Sickles teased him about it he said he knew it was him.

At the lumber yard, Sickles kept a mental note of the things the school needed. Sickles always thanked those who helped him, Eddy said.Sickles loved his “critters” and could often be found sharing them with those who visited his farm east of town.

Chad Herr, a firefighter in Fontanelle since 1992, remembers going to the lumber yard with his grandpa, Wilfred, as a child. Sickles was always there and helpful.

Once Herr became a firefighter, Sickles was great to learn from there. Herr remembers Sickles saying, “I’m getting too old for this and we need young guys on the department,” and now Herr is one of the older ones.

Herr stated that because of Sickles, he will will remember that hard work pays off. He said Sickles will always be his Chief and he won’t be forgotten.

Josh Oder, who served as Greenfield’s fire chief from 2019 to 2022, said working with Sickles was always a pleasure. He remembers Sickles as a man of few words, however when he spoke, he spoke with a purpose. “You couldn’t have asked for somebody better to work with. He was very easy to work with,” Oder said.

Current Bridgewater Fire Chief Daryl Christensen echoed the sentiments of the others the newspaper spoke with.

Farmers Lumber Company manager Jim Dickerson, who will celebrate 60 years working there next week, said that as an employee there, you had to be a “jack of all trades, a master of none,” and Sickles exemplified that. Dickerson said their routine would be to arrive at 7:30 a.m. and open up, then they’d have coffee and a staff meeting at 8:15 a.m. He said he greatly misses that routine with Sickles.

January 2022, upon his retirement from Farmers Lumber Company, Sickles said it meant a lot to him that he lived in Fontanelle his entire life. The community meant a lot to him.