A lifetime of service: Longtime fireman, 98, recalls love and loss stretching decades

Frank Trujillo couldn’t wait to be a fireman and stuck with it for 78 years.

“When I was a young fellow, they had a carnival one year and they took me on a ride in a fire truck, and that always stuck with me,” Trujillo said. “The first year I could, I joined the fire company.”

The 98-year-old joined the Universal Volunteer Fire Department in Penn Hills in 1942 when he was 17.

He was recognized in October for his 78 years of service as a Penn Hills volunteer firefighter. He retired as an active firefighter when he was in his 60s, but remains a lifetime member.

Trujillo began active duty as a firefighter at age 20 after serving in the Army for two years.

He served in the South Pacific during World War II.

“I didn’t see anything active,” he said. “The only thing I saw was them sink a mine. It was floating on the water and they sank it.”

Trujillo’s main form of travel while he was in the Army consisted of large boats. He recalled a time when he was the only member of his squad who wasn’t seasick. His job was to get his seasick squad members to the upper deck and hang their heads over the ship’s rails so they could be sick in the water below.

When he returned to Penn Hills, Trujillo began active duty as a volunteer firefighter and worked as a superintendent of maintenance at the Universal Atlas Cement Co. He was the repairman of the mill. While there, he learned different phrases in Greek, Italian, Spanish and Slovak to communicate with other workers.

As a young man at the fire department, Trujillo met his wife, Sylvia, after parking one of the fire trucks outside her family’s house after a firemen’s parade.

“Me and my buddy, we were dressed in our blues, and she comes out the door and her girlfriend whistled at us,” he said.

Sylvia ended up meeting 18-year-old Trujillo at the carnival later that night and the rest was history. He remembered their wedding night when the couple rode around in a squad car, celebrating their marriage.

“My father had three daughters-in-law,” Trujillo said. “He went down to Mexico where some of his daughters-in-law were, and they asked who his favorite daughter-in-law was. It was Sylvia.”

They were married for more than 40 years and had four children; Sylvia died in 1996.

“She could never turn her back on anybody,” Trujillo said.

His daughter, Linda Nimick, 70, of Penn Hills, said Trujillo was a son of migrant workers. His family traveled all over the country. One of five children, Trujillo and his siblings all were born in different states. His family was in Michigan before they heard about the jobs at Universal Cement in Penn Hills. Trujillo ended up being born shortly after his family’s relocation to Willow Street. He lived in his family home until marrying Sylvia and getting a house of their own.

Nimick said she and her three brothers and their mother were heavily involved with the fire department during and after her father’s active service. For a time, Nimick would work the fire hall’s weekly bingo night, and her mother served as president of the women’s auxiliary group associated with the department.

“We spent most of our life down at the fire hall, too,” Nimick said.

The family grew up with the fire bells in their home. She said they’d be all dressed up to go somewhere, and the bells would go off. She and her siblings would wait for their father to put out the fire and come back so they could continue their day.

Sylvia used to say the fire department was Trujillo’s life, Nimick said.

Despite all the bright spots the fire department added to Trujillo’s life, he can still remember the stress of some calls.

During one call, he and another fireman heard there were two small children stuck in a burning house in the Eastview neighborhood. They tore through the building looking for the children and stayed inside until they couldn’t search anymore.

Trujillo recalls the stark relief he felt after realizing the children were safe and were at a neighbor’s house at the time of the blaze.

There was another time when Trujillo and his fellow firefighters were on a call for a brush fire. Trujillo said everything was fine until the wind changed and the flames began quickly traveling toward the men. They had canisters of water with them but not enough to escape the danger without injury.

Just as the flames got close, Trujillo said the wind changed again and turned the flames away from the men.

“It saved us from getting burned,” Trujillo said.

Her father served with 42 other Universal company members, and the department became a hub of the community by hosting parades, carnivals and social events.

Like his family, Trujillo’s life was closely intertwined with the fire department. Nimick said he played an instrumental role in acquiring the land for the fire hall, which now is used as the surrounding fire companies’ social hall.

“He worked at the cement plant, and it was through the cement plant that they got the land,” she said.

“(Universal) donated everything,” Trujillo said. “You had to ask them for it. And they said yes.”

Nimick said Trujillo retired as an active firefighter when he was in his 60s. He remains a lifetime member.

“He continued being a fireman until they told him he could no longer be an active fireman,” Nimick said. “He still helped with everything at the department.”

Trujillo stayed on as a mentor for younger volunteers. He also helped with educational presentations about fire prevention throughout the Penn Hills area.

Trujillo currently resides at Brookdale Penn Hills. He has been honored multiple times by Penn Hills’ fire companies, local officials and state Rep. Joe McAndrew for his years of service.