Do nothing in excess

Andrew Edwards

After 37 years of battling fires, there’s only one thing left for Ron

McMinimy to do.

Nothing.

If one of the gifts given to the Costa Mesa fire captain at his

retirement party Thursday is any indication, he’ll be able to do as

much nothing as he wants when he moves to his ranch in Burnet, Texas.

McMinimy’s fellow firefighters built a fire-engine red arch to crown

the gate to his ranch, emblazoned with the moniker “Do Nothing

Ranch.”

“I asked him, ‘What are you going to do in Texas?’ He said, ‘I

ain’t going to do nothing,’” said fire engineer Russell Parker.

But the emblem that hangs below the sign, a Maltese cross adorned

with a firefighter’s ax and a hose nozzle, tells more about McMinimy

-- a 6-foot-2 Vietnam veteran, who will be remembered fondly by the

department -- than the ranch’s name.

“He’s an icon that will be sorely missed,” Costa Mesa Fire Chief

Jim Ellis said. “If you look up fireman in the dictionary, he’s the

guy.”

McMinimy, 62, filled out his application for the Costa Mesa Fire

Department during a tour of duty with the Marine Corps in Da Nang,

Vietnam, he said. He was hired by the department after he returned to

the United States in 1968. It was the job he wanted since he was a

child.

McMinimy saw his first fire when he was four-years-old in Quincy,

Wash., where his father was an assistant fire chief. His father would

get late-night phone calls when fires broke out and he would sneak

along for the ride.

“I knew what it was, and I would hide in the car,” McMinimy said.

In 37 years with the department, his last 11 at Station 6 in the

South Coast Metro area, McMinimy recalled that even his worst days on

the job were great.

“I loved helping people, I loved going on what we called a heavy

rescue, cutting people out of cars,” he said. “Fighting fires, I

really loved.”

Why?

“It’s unfortunate that fires are bad for people, but it was very

exciting and very fun,” McMinimy said. “I hate to brag, but I was

good at it.”

Parker worked with McMinimy for 27 years, the longest time any of

the department’s captains and engineers have been on the same crew.

“Mac and I hit it off on Day One,” Parker said. “He had a demeanor

and a walk, and he looked like John Wayne.”

McMinimy started looking for a retirement location in 2003 and

found a Texas property near family members. He officially retired in

December and said he knew he was ready to leave after his ranch was

ready.

He plans to move to Texas with his son Ryan in July, though some

people in the department had a hard time imagining him hanging up his

helmet.

“A lot of people said they’d carry him out on a stretcher,”

retired division chief Jim Richey said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards

@latimes.com.