Last night the Boone County Fire Protection District members and many citizens from the community celebrated the retirement of Division Chief Roy Francis at the Holiday Inn Executive Center.

Roy started his career with the Boone County Fire Protection District as a volunteer firefighter at Station 4 in Harrisburg in 1970. This happens to be the same year he was married to his lovely wife Lu. Roy was then hired as the first fire district mechanic in 1974. Through the years Roy has held the ranks of Lieutenant, Captain and Battalion Chief and most recently Division Manager of the Maintenance Division.

Roy is also one of the original members of Missouri Task Force One. Roy served as a logistics specialist and was deployed to Virginia for Hurricane Dean and Atlanta, GA for Hurricane Ernesto. He was also an original member of the Hazmat Team. During his tenure, he’s served as a primary and adjunct instructor for several Fire District training programs. Roy has been an ardent supporter of the Fire District both internally and externally.

During his 42 year career with the Fire District, Roy has either created, modified or repaired just about everything in the Fire District. Roy truly is ...