A Life of Service Preserved: Illinois Honors Volunteer Firefighter Steve Slemer

MAGA Viral™ editorial illustration honoring the life and service of Steve Slemer. This is an illustration, not a documentary photograph.

GLEN CARBON, Ill. — A small Illinois community is preparing to preserve the legacy of a third-generation volunteer firefighter whose life of service included helping save a driver trapped inside an overturned, water-filled vehicle.

The Glen Carbon Heritage Museum will unveil an updated permanent exhibit dedicated to the Glen Carbon Fire Protection District on Saturday, August 22. The exhibit will document 125 years of local firefighting history and include a plaque honoring the late Steven Terry “Steve” Slemer.

The project was funded by donations made in Slemer’s memory after his death on April 19, 2025, at the age of 65. Instead of directing memorial gifts elsewhere, his family asked that contributions support the Heritage Museum—an institution reflecting Slemer’s deep connection to the history and people of his hometown.

Museum Manager Samantha Doolin told The Edwardsville Intelligencer that Slemer’s daughter, Terri, helped facilitate the project. Members of the Slemer family are expected to attend the unveiling.

For Slemer, service was a family tradition.

According to an Illinois Senate resolution adopted in his memory, Slemer was the third generation of his family to serve in the Glen Carbon Fire Department. His badge was pinned in 1979. In a 2015 profile, Slemer said his father, grandfather, uncles, cousins and brothers had all served with the department.

His commitment extended well beyond the firehouse. Slemer worked for more than three decades at the Wood River Refinery in Roxana, where he served on its Emergency Response Team. He was also elected as a Glen Carbon village trustee, belonged to the Illinois State Beekeepers Association, served as a past president of a local Czechoslovak fraternal chapter and was a devoted parishioner of St. Cecilia Catholic Church.

But one rescue offers a particularly powerful picture of the courage behind the uniform.

In August 2013, Slemer was driving home from work when he encountered a car that had overturned in a drainage ditch near Glen Carbon. The driver, 62-year-old Paul Wanda, was trapped by his seat belt as water rose inside the vehicle.

Slemer entered the ditch and worked to keep Wanda’s head above the water. When the water eventually covered the driver’s face and he stopped moving, Slemer did not give up. Using a borrowed pocketknife, he cut at the seat belt while Madison County sheriff’s deputies and nearby bystanders helped reposition the vehicle. Wanda began breathing again and was later freed by responding firefighters and flown to a hospital.

Madison County Sheriff Robert Hertz later said the driver likely would not have survived without the immediate actions of Slemer and Deputy Timothy Lawrence. Slemer and the participating deputies were subsequently recognized with heroism awards from the Sons of the American Revolution. Slemer’s courage and emergency-response skills were also recognized with a Red Cross Lifesaving Award.

Even after the rescue received attention, Slemer emphasized service rather than celebrity. He described his family’s long relationship with the fire department as the accomplishment that made him most proud.

Now, that tradition will become part of the community’s permanent historical record.

The updated exhibit will combine new information, labels and artifacts documenting the Glen Carbon Fire Protection District’s 125-year history. Its unveiling will be accompanied by a Touch-a-Truck experience, opportunities to meet local firefighters, children’s crafts, outdoor activities and free ice cream while supplies last.

The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, August 22, at the Glen Carbon Heritage Museum, 124 School Street in Glen Carbon.

The exhibit is larger than the story of any one firefighter. But the plaque bearing Slemer’s name will ensure that visitors encountering the department’s history also encounter an example of what volunteer service can mean: generations answering the call, a neighbor refusing to abandon a trapped stranger and a family turning grief into a lasting gift to its hometown.

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