My name is Keeton Barker, and I have lived in Chillicothe my entire life. I went to South School, then to Chillicothe Elementary Center, and finally to Illinois Valley Central. Following IVC graduation, I started working for IVC School District for the following three years while getting my associates in Networking Administration. From there, I continued my academic career at Illinois State University, pursuing a bachelor’s in computer networking.

I have always had an interest in emergency services from a young age. Growing up and watching shows like Chicago Fire, Cops, and Live PD definitely had a strong influence on me. But my family also has a history in the fire service as well. My father was on the Dunlap fire department as a firefighter for 13 years till he moved to Chillicothe to start his family. 

So how did I end up becoming a firefighter at Chillicothe Community Fire Protection District? It started with Zach Scherer joining the fire department after leaving Troop 91. Zach and I have been good friends since we were in the same scout troop for multiple years. Troop 91 and other scout groups have a long history of joining the fire department. We all joined, from Miles Bannister to Jack Braun, once we aged out of the troop. So it really was a relatively easy decision to join the fire department right after Zach joined. I submitted my application in July but had to wait until the next recruit class started in October. I attended each training meeting while waiting to get started. From there, I went through three months of training till I became a recruit in January and started running my first emergency calls. 

To date, it has almost been four years since I joined the fire department, and I love every bit of it. For the first three years, I stayed in Chillicothe and ran on almost every call that came in while attending ICC and working full-time at the school district. On the weekends, I was attending Basic Operations Firefighting and what felt like endless amounts of training courses from Hazmat Operation to FEMA courses online. Nowadays, I am living part-time in Chillicothe and part-time in Normal while interning at COUNTRY Financial and attending ISU. I still make time for the fire department and my family by returning on the weekends to run calls while working in town. 

Even with my hectic schedule, from going to school full time to working multiple jobs, I always happily manage to find time to help my community during its darkest times. It doesn’t matter if you just graduated high school or just retired from working; there is always a need in our community. Now it’s time for me to ask you a question, what is stopping you from joining?