ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / August 15, 2000

LAPLACE- Ever since he was 4 years old, Michael Borne has been dreaming of one thing – being a fireman.

Now at the ripe old age of 15 Borne has realized his dream. For the past yearand a half Borne has served as a junior firefighter for the LaPlace Volunteer Fire Department. In fact, Borne is the fire chief of the junior firefighters.Borne is a junior at St. Charles Catholic High School, and helping out hasalways been a way of life for him.

“He’s a real people person,” said his mom, Lynne Borne.

“I just like helping everybody,” said a humble Borne.

Not only is he a firefighter, but he has been an altar boy at St. Joan of Arcfor a long time. In the seventh grade he was named Alter Boy of the Year.This summer he spent two weeks as a counselor at Camp Abbey, a Knights of Columbus summer camp on the North Shore.

“I really loved it,” said Borne. “I liked helping to keep all the kids in line.”Also this summer he kept busy by volunteering to help at the St. Joan of ArcBible School.

Some of his neighbors think Borne is a pretty special guy also, and according to Lynne Borne, her son is always working around the neighborhood fixing things.

“He keeps up several yard in the neighborhood, mowing lawns and such,” she said with a big smile. “I think he is just a great kid.”Admittedly, being the mother, Lynne is a bit biased, but from what others say about Borne he really is a good samaritan.

Neighbor Debbie Swetnam has nothing but praise for Borne.

“He’s always there, and a good neighbor,” said Swetnam. “He’s the type ofguy who gets things done. He is always helping out.”Swetnam’s daughter, Teresa, said Borne is a born counselor and a great listener.

“I go to him when I’m upset,” said Teresa, “and he is always there to listen and give advice.”But Borne’s big love is fighting fires. Being a junior firefighter he is notallowed to actually go in and fight structure fires, but he said he does put out grass and trash fires.

“There is always something going on,” said Borne. He said he gets paged forfires and emergencies five to six times a week.

When he does go to fires, he and the other junior firefighters help the senior firefighters by unrolling and hooking up hoses, making sure all the right equipment is ready, doing the paperwork and generally making themselves useful. Borne said his main job is to keep the other junior firefighters in line.Borne said he also goes to accidents and helps get victims our of cars and pour sand on gas spills.

“It’s really a lot of fun,” said Borne.

His big thing now is to actually drive the fire engine, but he will have to wait two years until he will be allowed to do that.

When Borne isn’t studying, fighting fires or helping others, he likes to relax by bowling. He bowls an average of 210.His mother thinks Michael got his ability to fix things from his father, Whitney Borne, an electrician at Union Carbide.

“His father is the jack-of-all-trades, and the both of them are always fixing things around here,” said Lynne Borne.

Borne has two more years to go at St.Charles Catholic then plans to go tocollege. However, he hasn’t decided what he wants to study in college.”I’m still not sure,” said Borne, “but I do know I want to be a firefighter as a sideline.”Another thing Borne is sure about is that he wants to stay here after college.

“All my friends want to get out of here, but I want to stay in St. JohnParish,” Borne said.

Return To News Stories