By Drew Taylor
Chris Horn still remembers the day he knew he wanted to be a firefighter.
He was 15 and had already been volunteering at the Center Point Fire District for a little over a year. He admits, at least initially, it was the excitement that first drew him to fire house.
“I just thought it was great that you got to ride on the truck that makes a lot of noise and you get to run red lights,” Horn said.
However, it was this on this particular day in 1986 that Horn saw a woman running from his neighbor’s house to the stoop he was sitting on in front of his house. The woman was the neighbor’s daughter, screaming that her father had stopped breathing.
Without a moment to think, Horn immediately began running toward his neighbor’s house. Having recently been certified in CPR for a health class at the former E.B. Erwin High School, Horn began working on his neighbor, trying to get him to breathe.
Within 30 seconds, firefighters from the fire department, located just a few blocks away, arrived at the house, surrounding Horn and his neighbor as he continued performing CPR.
“The guys knew me and kept saying ‘Don’t stop, keep pumping,’” he said.
With this, Horn knew he had found his calling, one that would have him putting out countless fires and saving many lives for over 40 years until this past spring, when he retired as battalion chief of Center Point.
“My phone went from ringing almost every moment of the day to the point where I don’t carry it around that much with me anymore,” he said. “It’s kind of nice.”
As a teenager, Horn would spend his days at school while working at the fire district’s dispatch center at night. By 1990, Horn joined the Center Point Fire District full-time.
In 2014, he was named Firefighter of the Year. For the next 12 years, Horn would work on the administrative side of the firehouse, dealing with logistics. In 2019, he was named captain of logistics, followed by battalion chief in 2023.
With the job, Horn was often forced to miss time with his family, whether it was running out of the house in the middle of dinner to respond to a call or spending the night in his office while on duty. Remembering how his father, who worked on the railroad for 40 years, died just six weeks after retiring, Horn felt like he had no more time to lose to lose away from the people he loved.
“I wanted to be with my family,” said Horn, whose oldest son recently got married with another set to tie the knot late this year. “It was time for me to relax and enjoy life as long as I can.”
Despite no longer having the near-constant hours he once did as a firefighter, Horn still keeps himself busy, from announcing high school basketball games to finally getting to some overdue projects around the house. More importantly, Horn now has more time with his wife of 32 years, Jodi.
“I’m not one to just sit around the house,” he said.
Looking back on his career, Horn is proud that he was able to help the community.
“It was always a calling for me,” he said.
