Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

A longtime fire department member - and at one time, fire chief - quietly retired from the Haines Fire Department last week.

Albert Giddings' last day was June 1, but he's not really gone. For one thing, there's a lot of paperwork to wrap up. Second, he's retired only as paid staff. He'll continue on as a volunteer firefighter and will still respond as a volunteer.

Giddings said he's liked the work as a firefighter.

"It's never been a 'job.' I liken it to a calling, but I know that sounds so corny," he said.

Giddings described his reason for stepping down.

"I'm in my 60s, and wanted to try out retirement. My daughter's been telling me, 'Dad, you need to retire.'"

His primary goal is to take care of his wife, Lori, who he says is as much of a first responder as he is. She wakes up when he goes to work at 2 a.m., and she stays up until he returns safely from work.

"We often forget that our loved ones and our spouses are the ones who are responding just as much as we are," Giddings said.

Giddings started his career with the Los Angeles Fire Department back in the early 80s. He recalled an application process that whittled the number of candidates from 80,000 people to just 200 people, and he was one of the 200 hirees.

Then he got a chance to go to Alaska as a commercial fisherman, taking his own boat up from Seattle. He quickly became a lay pastor for Adak, as well as the fire chief there. There's a story behind that, he said.

"There was no fire department there. But there was a house fire one night. So I ran to find out what fire equipment we did have. And without any authority, I drove it to the fire, and we put the fire out. At that point, they said, 'Will you become the chief of the department?'" Giddings recalled.

He and his wife, Lori, lived in Adak for 10 years. Then Giddings realized he needed a larger school for his daughter, who was attending classes in a one-room schoolhouse.

It just happened that the family passed through Haines on a trip to visit friends in Skagway.

"When we drove by the school, first time in Haines, just a light bulb went off. So that's where our daughter needs to go to school," Giddings said.

Since it was summer, the school was closed. He remembers looking at the school through a window.

"The janitor looked right back at us and said, 'Oh, you wanna come in and take a look?' And we knew right away, this is a good place to be," Giddings said.

In 2008, he moved to Haines and joined the fire department as a volunteer. He described the difference between the fire department then, and the fire department now.

When he first started, the department handled about 200 calls a year, and most of these were basic life safety. Now the department handles about 400 a year, and some of the work they do is advanced life safety, such as cardiac.

"It's a good, good department. It's amazing; it's a single-house department with a huge first-in district, covering all the fire and EMS for this entire town of Haines, 40 square miles. It's a volunteer department, with two full-time paid staff, one part time. And then a volunteer chief. And there's about, presently, 32 volunteers on the fire department," Gidding said.

And now, Giddings counts himself as one of the volunteers.

"What happens is, you're working closely with other people on your crew, and you come to develop a true family love for one another, and that caring and love just carries out into the community," he said.

So the patients Gidding must look after are not just patients, but fellow members of the community.

"So that's the part that really grabs my heart in stepping down as a full-time career staff," he said. "That's what makes Haines, 'Haines.' And good coffee."

Giddings and his wife have no plans to leave Haines any time soon.

"We plan on continuing to serve as volunteers in the Fire Department and greater community," he wrote in his resignation letter. "We are both looking forward to new adventures ahead, in what my wife describes as a sort of 'semi-retirement,' if there is such a thing."

Giddings is working to get his doctorate from a seminary, which is about three years away. He added that faith has been part of his life since high school. He described some of his favorite Biblical passages, from among his many favorites.

From II Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." And from Romans 8:1: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Giddings summed up his life.

"So I've always had faith, in my life, since high school, and wanted to make an impact in the world in spreading the Gospel. And everything else has just been a journey that I feel God is taking me on. I know it sounds crazy, doesn't it?" Gidding said.