After 37 years of battling fires, and rescuing people from mangled vehicles from accidents, Keith Hettwer has decided to retire from the Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department. Today (Wednesday) is Hettwer’s final day with the fire department. He says he first got interested in serving on the fire department, back as a young boy. Hettwer will retire as a captain from the Le Mars fire department. He says he remembers several of the emergency calls. But, perhaps the one emergency call that will forever stick in Hettwer’s mind occurred not when he was on duty as a
fire fighter, but rather during his past full-time job with the Iowa National Guard. He says watching the crippled United Flight 232 come into the Sioux City airport, on that fateful summer day of 1989, followed by the aftermath, will forever be remembered.