Eric S. McDonald
Now 30 years old, I started collecting Legos at the age of 9. I saved all the sets that I came across until I was 20, at which time, I gave away my entire collection to a friend's son, who was 8. The Legos filled the box for an 19 inch TV. However, I kept all my fire trucks and fire stations.
My first Lego set was given to me as a present for Christmas Eve back in 1982 from my Grandmother. Ironically, it was a fire truck. In the following 20 years, I became very committed to my Lego City Fire Department (LCFD) collection. I began to purchase every fire set that LEGO produced. Today, LCFD consists of 20 fire stations, over 188 pieces of apparatus, a large Training Facility, a Fire Museum, and a five story Fire Department Headquarters building, which also have 3 bays for the department's maintenance personnel.
Eric S. McDonald - 1999
I am divorced and raising 2 daughters, Sam (12 years old) and Kaylea (8 years old). We live in Minnesota, just north of Minneapolis.
At the age of 9 years old, I fell in love with the Fire Service. I became good friends with the local Fire Chief and as I grew up, would hang out at the local fire station. Through the many days and evenings that I spent at the fire station, I was able to get to know many of the firefighters there as well as the fire service in general.
Eric - In Full Turnout Gear
When I turned 18, I immediately joined the fire department. I have been a volunteer firefighter for 11 years and an EMT for 8 years. I started at Andover, MN fire and rescue. Then in 1992, I moved out to west central Minnesota to a small town of 669 people called Raymond. There is where I spent most of my career on both the fire department and with the ambulance. For a short while before moving back to the Twin Cities, I volunteered for a slightly bigger town, Atwater. Again, working for both the fire department and the ambulance. Currently, I work for an ambulance company in St. Paul. I attend 9 colleges to obtain 2 AAS degrees, one for Fire Science Tech and the other for Paramedic Tech.
Eric in EMS Uniform
I was born in Minneapolis, MN and lived there until I was five years old. I was raised by my mother and have no sisters or brothers. My mother and father were never married and when my father found out that my mother was pregnant, he left. I have never seen him in my life. In 1976, my mother and myself moved to where I was raised for the remainder of my life - Anoka, MN. I lived there until I was eighteen, when I moved out on my own with my future wife to a neighboring city. I then moved around throughout Anoka County, MN. After living in the Willmar, MN area for a few years, I returned to the Twin Cities, MN area and have lived in Anoka since.
I am in the process of trying to get onto the Fire Department here in Anoka. This is an on-call fire department and they don't do EMS, but I would love to be able to serve my city with them. I am also considering joining the fire department of a neighboring city, Coon Rapids. Their on call personnel only respond to help with working fires and they hire their career employees from their on call list.
My first daughter was born in April of 1990. I was married in September 1990. My ex-wife left us six months later. My second daughter was born from my ex-wife in December of 1993. My divorce was finalized in November of 1996. There is much, much more to this story, as there always is, but I will refrain from telling it.
My hobbies include many areas, but as you can see, LCFD is the biggest and by far. I also like hockey, especially University of MN's Golden Gophers. I also like pro hockey, with the Detroit Red Wings being my favorite team - at least for now. We'll see how the MN Wild do. I also sometimes get into basketball. I dislike football and baseball, which I have had to learn to tolerate because my oldest daughter loves it and we practice all the time to keep her switch hitting skills up, and I dislike soccer, which I don't really even consider a sport, but again, have had to tolerate because the oldest daughter likes it. What's a father to do? We have taken up karate lately, and the girls like that a lot. I love going out to the lake. I also love travelling and stopping at new cities and taking pictures of fire trucks and stations. I also collect FD patches and especially, uniform t-shirts. I do just about everything with my daughters. I enjoy going up to the lake, watching James Bond, and playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
Currently, I work at HealthEast Transportation as a Dispatcher and on the ambulance as an EMT. This job is a major answer to prayer. It allows me to study while not busy at work, goto Paramedic school fulltime during the day, be with my daughters at night, and to afford to pay for school, and gets my foot in the door for the company I'd like to work for once I get my Paramedic.
If there are other questions you have for me, please feel free to email me and ask them. If there are other things that you think I should put onto this page about myself, please let me know.
URL: http://members.aol.com/LCFDFireChief/lcfd.htm
Lego City Fire Department © 2000 Eric S. McDonald
This page was last updated on 5-14-02