The City of Kenai’s recently installed fire chief, Jay Teague, didn’t just wrap up his first week of a new job on Monday; he and his wife wrapped up their first week of a lifelong dream: moving to Alaska.
It’s a sentiment familiar to many Alaskans who checked the Last Frontier off their bucket list after sojourning north, but for Chief Teague, it’s also a chance to serve the public by getting back to a job he loves.
“I really wanted to get back into the fire service,” said Teague, who recently served as a director of emergency management in Colorado. “I’ve got another probably good 10-15 years that I wanted to devote to emergency services, and I wanted to be back in a fire organization.”
Teague brings a wealth of experience to the position of fire chief in Kenai, including five years in his role directing emergency management and 24 years as a flight medic and firefighter for the Department of Defense. The job opening with the City of Kenai, though, provided the new chief with a chance to get back to his firefighting roots and see the realization of his and his wife’s lifelong dream of living in Alaska.
“I’d been wanting to get back to fire but specifically to Alaska. My wife and I have been dreaming and trying to get here since we were teenagers and just career and professional avenues have not allowed for that until just recently,” said Teague. “What we wanted to do was get to Alaska. So, we’re here.”
As an emergency management director, Chief Teague oversaw eight fire departments, two ambulance districts, two city police departments, a Sheriff’s Department, two school districts, and a regional hospital. To the untrained eye, this new environment may seem like a retirement by comparison, but that’s not how Teague sees his role with the Kenai Fire Department.
“It’s just a different way,” Teague said of his new scope of work. “I mean, the workload will be the same, but I’m more focused. I think it’s more focused on quality than quantity.”
Stepping into any new job is difficult, especially in an administrative role. However, it helps when your predecessor created a fine-tuned machine over a distinguished 27-year career. According to Teague, the 27 years of service by Kenai Fire’s previous Chief, Tony Prior, has made for an easy changeover. “It’s been excellent,” Teague said. “I’m walking into a good situation…the department’s running very well, and the crews are dialed in. So, it’s been an easy transition.”
Not only has the transition gone well, but Teague gets to oversee a nice upgrade to the department right out of the gate. Very soon, the department will take delivery of two new ambulances, an event Teague says the public will be invited to join.
Teague said Chief Prior built and placed the order for the new ambulances nearly two years ago but that the units should finally be shipped from Seattle next week. Stay tuned for the time and date of the upcoming event and open house, where the community will have the opportunity to meet and greet firefighters and the new chief and take part in a “traditional firehouse ceremony” by helping “push in” the two new apparatus.
