Before Rich Barr, 56, became a firefighter, he owned a successful photography business with friends. Today, he is division chief and fire marshal for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical.

In 1977, Rich Barr responded to a newspaper advertisement. It was 18 months after he’d received a degree from Kansas University in systematics and ecology, and it changed the direction of his life.

“The fire department advertised for firefighters to work 10, 24-hour shifts a month,” says Barr, 56. “I thought I could do that and another job as well. I applied, then forgot about it.”

Barr now is division chief and fire marshal for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical.

Barr, who was born in Oberlin, moved to Hoxie in 1965 after his father’s death. In 1973, he graduated from Colby Community College with an associate of arts degree in geology and started a photography business with three friends while attending KU.

“I remember going to the Hoxie bank manager to ask to borrow $2,500 to start a business,” he recalls. “It was a lot of money, but it was great fun getting the business set up, and it provided me with great experience.”

The friends started by taking sorority and graduation photographs and expanded their business by opening offices in Iowa City and Minneapolis.

After graduating from KU, Barr moved to the Ames office for 18 months and drove to Lawrence nearly every weekend.

“I ate up the road on those drives and got three speeding tickets,” he confesses. “When I heard a city of Lawrence message on my answering machine, I presumed it was about the speeding tickets and decided to ignore it for a while. Days later, when I listened more carefully, I realized it was about an interview for the firefighter job.”

After a successful interview, Barr began firefighter training.

“I worked with great people,” Barr says. “We spent nearly a third of our lives together; sleeping, eating, working and celebrating. We learned to trust each other totally. Everything was exciting to me in my early 20s, but I was easily bored. The service was a bit narrower then and we weren’t challenged too much, but I really didn’t know too much about anything back then.”

Things changed within 18 months. In 1978, he experienced his first fire fatality at Pier One (now the site of Palace Cards, 8 W. Eighth St.), helped recover bodies from a 1979 Amtrak train wreck and witnessed a colleague being severely injured when he fell three stories during a fire at Burke Awning on Massachusetts Street.

“I missed falling by the narrowest of margins,” Barr recalls. “It put things in perspective for me.”

He was promoted to fire marshal in 1985 and eventually sold his photography business in 1993. He became a division chief in 2006.

Barr admits his work is stressful and that cardiac arrest is the highest killer among firefighters. He believes fitness is vital for maintaining health. He embarked on a fitness regime in 1979 and has been exercising during daily lunch breaks since. He says his family notice if he misses because he becomes cranky.

“I used to run over 40 miles a week, but now it’s about 20. I’m slowing down,” he says with a laugh. “The only time I speed these days is when I’m called to official emergencies.”