Fire Chief Tony Prior has been with the Kenai Fire Department for almost 27 years. During all of those years, he has done everything from firefighter to engineer to captain, battalion chief, and deputy chief.
However, after all these years of fighting fires and saving lives, he has officially decided to retire from the Kenai Fire Department and move to Oregon to start anew.
Chief Prior has accepted a Fire Chief Position at Sisters Camp Sherman Row Fire Protection District and begins there on June 1st.
Even though this is a life-changing decision, he says this was the right time to do so.
“I was able to retire from the state to purchase a system on the tier three employee. So, being able to retire with full medical benefits and retirement here and then start a second career,” said Prior,” So yeah, everything just kind of fell into place and worked out well.”
He also mentions that his wife works on the Northwest Incident Management team and spends her summers outside of Oregon. That, combined with having some family down there, lined up to be the best of both worlds.
He says he will miss the most about the fire department is the people he works with.
“They’re just a phenomenal group of folks to work with, and that’s what has made me come to work every day. It’s a joy, and what I still do, actually; it’s just this opportunity that came along that you couldn’t pass up, but the group of people are just phenomenal people. They have a passion for what they’re doing. They’re the ones who work hard. Just the culture of our department, I think is one of one of the things that I’ll miss the most. It is just a great group of folk,” says Prior.
Prior says that he’s extremely grateful for the city and everything they have provided for him and his family.
“It’s been a great place in the city. Kenai is a great place to work. So anybody’s ever looking at them. I highly encourage them to check out the city there. They’re doing some wonderful things here in Alaska. And as far as the last day goes, I don’t think there’s a better community to live in than what we live in here,” says Prior.