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| Kevin Pomasl | Dan Pomasl |
Pomasl Fire Equipment, Inc. has been in business since 1939. Pomasl Fire has always called North Central Wisconsin ‘Home.’ The company was started by Mel Servi in Pickeral, Wisconsin and was originally called Servi Fire Control. Mel converted a single stall garage into a home office and had two large sheds with loose equipment. Mel grew the business each year. Back in the day, Mel sold Howe fire apparatus along with Scott Air Paks, hose, nozzles, gear and other equipment along with servicing fire extinguishers and even serviced restaurant kitchen systems. Eventually Grumman Fire Trucks bought out Howe and so we became a Grumman dealer.
In 1985, Dan Pomasl purchased the company as Mel wanted to retire. Dan operated the company for two years with Mel in Pickerel to learn from Mel and meet all the customers. In 1987, Dan moved the company to the current location in Antigo, Wisconsin and renamed the company Pomasl Fire Equipment, Inc. Dan continued to grow the business and add products to the line of equipment. Eventually Dan sold the kitchen / restaurant service portion of the business in order to focus more on the vastly growing fire line. In 1992, Grumman Fire Trucks decided to close their doors and shortly after, Dan added Pierce Fire Apparatus as our fire apparatus manufacturer.
In 2000 after graduating from college from the University of Minnesota and working in Minneapolis for a while, Dan’s son, Kevin, came to work in the company. Kevin had worked in the company in high school doing various jobs from mowing lawn to repairing discharge valves to helping with pump tests. Upon coming back, Kevin worked side by side with Dan for a year to immerse himself in the products and learn everything he could from his father. As computers became more dominate in the design, layout, and proposal verbiage portion of fire apparatus, Kevin naturally gravitated to this side of the business because of great computer skills.
In late 2000, we had an opportunity to add ambulances to the business and so we became a dealer for Medtec Ambulance Corporation for the northern portion of Wisconsin and the U.P. of Michigan. Kevin took the lead on the ambulance side of the business and slowly grew this area of the business. It was announced in the summer of 2010 that Medtec would be closing its doors, which was a shock to us and all the Medtec dealers.
Instead of giving up a product line and all the relationships we grew over 10 years, we looked at the closing as a positive thing and took advantage of an opportunity to grow the business. We became a dealer for PL Custom Ambulances for the entire State of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the U.P. of Michigan. Then in the spring of 2012, we added Demers Ambulances to the product line for the same territory. Both lines are extremely well built high quality ambulances with unique features that set themselves apart from the competition. The large expansion of territory has allowed us to significantly grow the company. Both PL Custom and Demers are members of the SAVVIK Buying Group (formerly NCEMS) and HGAC.
When we expanded our territory, we decided it was time to add another product offering to our ambulance customers – Remounts. We now offer ambulance remounts of all brands of ambulances on all models of chassis.
Pomasl Fire Equipment has three service technicians in Antigo and works with two other specialty emergency vehicle service locations to make sure we can service the vehicles we sell in our entire territory.