Fire chief to retire
Few people have battled flames for longer than Johnny Teeters .
After a career stretching over part or all of five decades, Teeters, the city's fire chief, announced Monday that he plans to retire at the end of the year.
The 66-year-old Teeters, who joined the department in 1964 and became chief in 1999, said during a press conference that firefighting was the perfect career for him.
"I've never had one day where I came to work and didn't enjoy it," he said.
City Manager Mitch Johnson had high praise for the outgoing chief.
"Johnny ... will be leaving the department at the top of its game," he said.
Teeters will be on the job until December, and Johnson said the city probably will conduct a national search for his replacement.
Here are some of Teeters' thoughts about the department and his long career:
Q: In what way has the department improved the most over the years?
Training, the level of training we receive for our people, and the safety we provide for them. We don't want to lose any of our firefighters. All the safety equipment, walkies, all the technologies we've brought to this department are second to none.
Q: What needs will the department need to address in the future?
Growth. We've got a tremendous amount of growth. We've got 5 stations on this present bond issue and we'll be asking for probably about another five or six in the coming years because of the tremendous growth that we're anticipating.
Q: What is the worst fire you've seen?
We had a huge fire downtown back in the early seventies. It just burnt off three city blocks. I could see it from my house when they called me and I was driving down Elm Street.
It was up there, like the whole city was burning.
We had tremendous winds. It was just blowing that fire clean across the streets. As wide as Davie Street is, it blew it clean across the street to the other side.
It took us a while to get everything set up and keep it to about a three block area. It was unbelievable.
Q: What's the proudest moment in your career?
My whole career, I've put my whole heart in this fire department. Being chief gave me an opportunity to lead some of the greatest men and women I could ever work with.
We've made such an impact on the fire service ... people come to spend three days to a week at a time with us to see how we run our fire department.
We measure everything. We're very high tech. We stay on the cutting edge. We've got people who are so innovative and creative. I've been the architect, and they've carried it out.