By Ty Walker
The Mountain Times
Tom Gall may have grown up in Ohio but he didn’t start growing family roots until he moved to rural Lolo Pass, near the community of Zigzag, in 1986. It was a pivotal year in Gall’s life.
With a biology degree from Kent State University and certification as a paramedic, he came to the Mount Hood area to accept a job with the National Forest Service. He also took a part-time paramedic position at Alpine Ambulance Co. in Sandy.
In the summer of that year, he started training to become a volunteer firefighter in the Hoodland Fire District, which would lead to a lifelong career as a fulltime firefighter paramedic. He was happy to find that the Hoodland Fire District was equipped with an advanced life support (ALS) team, which makes a big difference in rural districts that are typically far away from doctors and hospitals.
In 1988, he applied for and was hired at Gresham Fire Department, where he worked for almost 28 years before retiring in 2016. During his entire career in Gresham and to this day, he has continued to volunteer at Hoodland – a job spanning 38 years.
“I had a career in Gresham, became a company officer, married, raised a family, bought a house, had a mortgage, had a minivan, the whole deal,” Gall said. “You get busy having a family and having a job.”
He and his wife raised their three daughters in Zigzag. Two are now married and one is in grad school.
“I love being a dad and loved raising them on Mt. Hood,” Gall said. “Now I’m a grandpa and that’s the best job in the world.”
Gall, like many firefighters, also loves his job. He loves the action. He loves helping people out. He loves the camaraderie and teamwork. He loves saving lives.
“I’ve always liked having a job where the primary purpose is to help other people,” Gall said. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of it.”
Over the course of his career, Gall has helped countless people out in emergencies as a first-responder. He said there was one call that stood out early in his career.
A construction worker setting up scaffolding was electrocuted from touching a 12,000-volt electrical line. He was on the ground in cardiac arrest when Gall and his crew arrived at the scene.
“We did CPR and everybody knew their job,” Gall said. “One of us got an airway, another one did CPR and a third person got the heart monitor out and the drugs, and we managed to get his heart started again.
“He was 29 and had a wife and two little kids. I wasn’t much older than him and had three kids at the time, and I thought it was cool that he gets to see his kids.”
Now 63, Gall has to be ready to respond to emergencies at any moment as a volunteer. Early in July, he got called in at midnight to fill in for Hoodland staff who got called away to help fight the Larch Creek Fire near Tygh Valley in eastern Oregon. The fire prompted Gov. Tina Kotek to invoke the Emergency Conflagration Act to help fight the blaze, which had reached 7,000 acres.
“The Hoodland Fire District was ordered to bring a brush truck. I was called in to cover for staff,” Gall said.
Gall also has served as a Portland Mountain Rescue leader since 2002, training search and rescue team volunteers and emergency medical responders. He has responded to calls from Mount Rainier to Mount Shasta, as well as Mount Hood.
Gall said Mount Hood is a beacon symbolizing home for his family. “We’re pretty lucky to have the best beacon. The best beacon that there is is Mount Hood for my family.”