Rick Howard on 40 Years of EMS, Fire Service, and Emergency Medicine in Lehi, Utah

Rick Howard on 40 Years of EMS & Fire Service in Lehi, Utah | Roots & Branches

Longtime Lehi EMT and battalion chief Rick Howard shares how personal loss led to 40 years of emergency medicine, the shotgun merger of Lehi fire and ambulance, Olympic medical work, and building the next generation of first responders.

Rick Howard on 40 Years of EMS, Fire Service, and Emergency Medicine in Lehi, Utah

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Who Is Rick Howard, and Why Does His Story Matter?

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Episode Overview

Guest Name

Role in Lehi

Time Periods Discussed

Host

Primary Topics Discussed

Episode Highlights

Key Stories from the Interview

A Blind Date on Valentine's Day — And First Impressions of Lehi

A Son's Heart Defect That Changed Everything

The Shotgun Merger of Lehi Fire and Ambulance

From Pagers and Air Raid Sirens to Modern Paramedic Response

Nursing at the 2002 Winter Olympics Snowboarding Venue

"I Just Get It" — The Aha Moment Behind a Teaching Career

Training Paramedics in a War Zone — Ukraine and Morocco

The Student Who Said, "Mrs. Howard Saved My Life"

Can This Keystone Cop Get Any Better?

Meadow Elementary — A Fatal Call and the Power of Staying Together

What This Interview Teaches Us About Lehi

Community & Legacy Themes

Memorable Quotes

Related Lehi Topics & Archive Connections

Explore More Stories from Lehi

Suggested Photos & Visuals

Full Transcript

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Longtime Lehi EMT, firefighter, battalion chief, and paramedic educator Rick Howard shares how personal tragedy led to a lifetime of emergency medicine, the dramatic shotgun merger of Lehi's fire and ambulance departments, working the 2002 Winter Olympics, and training first responders around the world.

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For more than four decades, Rick Howard has been one of the quiet pillars behind emergency medicine and fire service in Lehi, Utah . His story begins far from Utah — in Southern California and Hawaii — before life circumstances, family loss, and a blind date on Valentine's Day brought him to Lehi. What started as a young couple settling into a small, quiet town eventually became a lifelong commitment to serving and protecting the people who call Lehi home.

Rick's journey into emergency medicine was shaped by deeply personal experiences: the loss of his father, the passing of his infant son, and the encouragement of his wife, who recognized his natural instinct for medical care long before he ever wore a uniform. Over the years, he became a cornerstone of Lehi's EMS and fire evolution — from the days of pagers and volunteer response to the development of advanced EMT programs, paramedic services, and modern emergency protocols. His work reflects the growth of Lehi itself: from a small rural town to a thriving, modern community with expanding public safety needs.

Today, Rick continues to teach, mentor, and shape the next generation of emergency responders. His story is one of service, humility, and innovation — rooted in Lehi's community spirit and carried forward by a lifelong desire to help others on their hardest days. For anyone interested in Lehi Utah history , emergency medical services , local first responder stories , or the Roots & Branches of Lehi podcast , this interview offers a rare, firsthand look at the people who built the safety net beneath a growing city.

Prefer to listen? This episode is also available on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , and other podcast platforms.

Rick Howard

Longtime EMT, firefighter, battalion chief, EMS trainer, paramedic educator, and CERT program founder

1970s–2020s

Ryan Harding

Rick met his wife Susan on a blind date 48 years ago on Valentine's Day. They visited Lehi for the first time at a dance in the Colonial House — a venue made from an old building turned into a dance hall. Rick's first thought was blunt: “Who in the crap would want to live out here?” Yet three years later they were married and settled in Lehi, eventually spending over four decades building a life and career of service there.

In 1982, Rick and Susan's first baby was born with a heart defect called tetralogy of Fallot and was missing a pulmonary valve. After four months of hospital visits, their son passed away. Susan noticed Rick had an uncanny ability to diagnose and understand medical situations even without training. Encouraged by her and his lumber yard boss, Rick enrolled in an EMT program at St. Mark's Hospital in 1984, launching a medical career that would span nursing, trauma care, fire service, and global education.

In the early 1990s, Lehi's fire and ambulance departments were completely separate — different buildings, different cultures, and no desire to cross-certify. City Manager Ed Collins called a joint meeting in the city council chambers, walked in, “basically racked a shotgun,” and declared: “Your departments are now married.” Firefighters had to become EMTs. EMTs had to become firefighters. Some left; most adapted. Rick, who already held both certifications, found himself uniquely positioned to bridge the two worlds.

Rick recalls the early days when Lehi responders used an old air raid siren on top of the building to alert volunteers, followed by pagers. Whoever got to the station first went on the call. There was no full-time staff, no paramedic service, and no unified department. Over the decades he helped transform the agency into a modern, full-time operation with multiple stations, advanced cardiac protocols, and a paramedic program — a reflection of Lehi's explosive growth from a quiet rural town to a city of nearly 100,000.

Rick worked the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics as a nurse at the snowboarding venue. While the athletes often brushed off injuries, the medical team treated a steady stream of wealthy visitors from sea-level Southern California who flew private jets to Heber, drove up to 10,000 feet in Park City, and promptly developed altitude sickness. It was a surreal season of “business as usual” for an experienced trauma nurse, but one that connected his hometown department to a global stage.

When Rick's daughter switched her college major from dance to math education, he teased her: “You can't be a math teacher — the only numbers you know are five, six, seven, eight.” Her reply stopped him cold: “Because I get it.” Rick realized that was exactly how he felt about emergency medicine. It wasn't learned purely from textbooks; it was an intuitive grasp of physiology, protocols, and human crisis that he now works to instill in every paramedic student at UVU.

Rick and his son traveled to Ukraine to train paramedic police in a region near the Donbas that was actively being bombed. He admits he might not have gone had he studied the map more carefully. They also participate in a National Guard and UVU program teaching fire and EMS personnel in Morocco . Rick believes medical knowledge should be shared freely — not hoarded. He now sends his lecture materials in PDF form to anyone who asks, hoping one day a student he trained in Casablanca might save a life because of it.

At a fire scene in South Lehi, a man in his 30s approached Rick because he saw the name Howard on his helmet. He asked Rick to tell Susan something: “She saved my life.” When Rick asked how, the man said, “She taught me how to read.” The moment crystallized for Rick why teaching matters — not for credit or recognition, but for the quiet, lifelong impact an educator can have. It also reinforced the Chicago Fire Department mantra he repeats to every class: “Your worst day has to be my best day.”

Rick and his partner Kenny responded to a full arrest in the old part of Lehi. En route, Kenny hit a water runoff dip so hard the ambulance front end left the ground and shelves broke inside. They arrived laughing, then shattered a screen door with Kenny's backside while carrying the patient out on a backboard. Kenny then slipped stepping into the ambulance and dropped the board. “Now the board's here and the dead guy's here,” Rick recalls. “We're trying to be respectful. And the lady's crying.” It was a lesson in maintaining composure when everything goes comically, tragically wrong.

After a little girl was fatally run over by a truck near Meadow Elementary, Rick and his chief officers sequestered the crew in a room to debrief. They offered to send everyone home and cover their shifts. The crew refused. “No, we want to stay together,” they said. “We're family.” Rick believes this crew cohesion — the ability to diffuse together over days at the station — is why full-time agencies often fare better mentally than volunteer or part-time departments, where responders go home alone after the worst moments of their careers.

Rick Howard's memories provide a rare firsthand account of Lehi's public safety infrastructure as it evolved alongside the city itself. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Lehi operated separate fire and ambulance departments with distinct cultures, buildings, and certifications. The two agencies were so siloed that a city manager literally used a shotgun rack as a dramatic device to force a merger. That moment captures the tension of a small town growing faster than its institutional structures could adapt.

The interview documents Lehi's transition from a volunteer and paid-on-call system — complete with an old air raid siren and home pagers — to a modern, full-time department with multiple stations, advanced life support, and specialized cardiac protocols. Rick notes that Lehi was among the first agencies in Utah County to read EKGs in the field, identify heart attacks, and bypass local hospitals to transport patients directly to percutaneous cardiac intervention (PCI) labs. This was not just medical progress; it was a local agency asserting its capabilities against institutional skepticism.

The development of Lehi's CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program also reflects a historical pattern in the city: when formal systems could not cover every need, community members stepped in. Rick recalls LDS wards filling sandbags during floods in the late 1980s, before CERT was formally established. That volunteer culture — later organized, trained, and equipped through city support — demonstrates how Lehi's civic infrastructure has historically blended professional services with grassroots participation.

Finally, Rick's career trajectory mirrors Lehi's geographic and economic expansion. He commuted to trauma centers in Salt Lake City, worked full-time at Sandy Fire, and taught at UVU — all while maintaining his roots and leadership role in Lehi. The fact that a battalion chief in a city of 100,000 still responds from home to major calls, teaches international paramedic courses, and mentors students at the local university illustrates how Lehi's modern identity remains connected to the hands-on, multi-hat-wearing culture of its rural past.

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This episode connects to broader themes explored across the Roots & Branches of Lehi archive. Listeners interested in Rick's story may also want to explore these related subjects from other interviews:

The Roots & Branches of Lehi archive captures the voices of educators, entrepreneurs, public servants, artists, farmers, and families who have shaped the city. Each episode adds another thread to the story of who Lehi is and who it is becoming.

To enrich this archival page and preserve the visual history of this conversation, the following images would complement the written record:

This transcript has been lightly formatted for readability while preserving the complete conversation. Speaker labels and paragraph breaks have been added; minor verbal filler has been trimmed for clarity. Chapter headings organize the interview by topic.

An oral history archive capturing the stories, people, and traditions that make Lehi, Utah unique. Hosted by Ryan Harding.

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