A longtime North Carolina fire chief has called it a career after spending 50 years in the fire service.
In a lengthy profile, The Wilson Times touches on the many highlights for Wilson Fire/Rescue Chief Don Oliver, who began his career in 1967 after he inquired about working for the fire department in Wichita, Kansas.
Wilson had been in a motorcycle accident and was facing a layoff at 20 years old when a friend told him what he would do if he were young enough.
"We got a week notice of being laid off when the tool expediter asked me what I was going to do," Oliver told the Wilson Times. "I asked him what he was going to do and he said, 'If I was young enough, I'd join the fire department.'"
Oliver, who was in an ankle cast from his accident, then went to a fire station and asked about the job. He says he took the oral exam with the cast on and then asked his doctor to remove it for the physical. He officially became a firefighter on March 27, 1967.
After working in Wichita for nearly six years, Oliver moved when he got married and joined the fire department in Thornton, Colorado, rising in rank to engineer and then lieutenant in just 14 months. He eventually moved up to assistant chief and then spent four years as Thornton's fire chief before taking the same post in Wilson, which he has held since 1992.
Oliver, whose final day of work was Friday, has had plenty of time to reflect on the changes he's seen in half a century of firefighthing.
"I think the biggest change I've seen in 50 years is that the fire service has gone from a response agent to a proactive leader in the community," he told the Wilson Times. "We lead the effort in risk reduction through education, engineering and enforcement."
