Joe Wallin has been with Minnetonka Fire Department since 1985?
Minnetonka Fire Chief Joe Wallin poses with a fire engine at the 2011 Fire Department and City Open House. March 31 is Wallin?s last day as fire chief, a position he?s held for 19 years. (Sun staff photo by Matthew Hankey)
Minnetonka Fire Chief Joe Wallin will soon be living thousands of miles from the place he?s called home his whole life.
Wallin announced his retirement in late January, and Sunday, March 31, will be his last day on the job, a position he?s held for 19 years.
?This is truly bittersweet,? said Wallin, a Class of 1978 Hopkins Lindbergh High School graduate. ?The city and the fire department are like family to me.?
In April, Wallin will relocate to Tacoma, Wash., where his wife has been living for the past month, and where his three children also reside.
?Like I?ve told people, I have to leave one family to be with another.? Wallin said.
Wallin began his career with the Minnetonka Fire Department in 1985 as a paid, on-call firefighter. He became a captain two years later, became a deputy fire marshal in 1990 and was appointed fire chief in 1994.
Under Wallin?s leadership, the city decreased its Insurance Service Office rating from 5 to 3. The score is based on the insurance industry?s rating of a fire department, the lower the score the better.
Minnetonka?s rate is tied for the lowest in the state and allows city businesses to pay lower insurance premiums than if the rating were higher, said City Manager Geralyn Barone.
Wallin has also overseen an upgrade in safety equipment in the past 20 years and has helped expand the city?s public fire education and fire prevention program, Barone said.
But, Wallin said, his number-one priority had been to ensure the safety of people in his department.
?The thing that has always been always most important to me, personally, was to take care of the firefighters,? he said.
Wallin said people sometimes forget how dangerous a firefighter?s job can be. But on his watch, not one firefighter was killed in the line of duty.
?I?ve always thought that was my primary duty was to get them back home to their loved ones,? he said. ?We?ve made it safer and safer, and that was always one of my goals.?
Barone, who has worked with Wallin for more than two decades, saw first-hand how he developed and looked after his department.
?Chief Wallin has fostered a culture of caring, camaraderie and support within his department, which is reflected in the great public service they provide to our community,? she said.
Wallin?s career was living a life-long dream.
When he was four, he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up.
?I want to be a fireman,? was his response. His answer was the same when he was 15 and when he was 53.
?All I ever wanted to be was a firefighter,? Wallin said. ?I got to do what I wanted to do.?
When he was growing up, he watched his neighbor ? a firefighter ? run out of his house and jump into his car to go fight fires.
That was the life he wanted, and Minnetonka made his dream a reality.
?The city gave me the opportunity to be a firefighter, and what a blessing,? said Wallin.
In retirement, he said he will miss the firefighters and city staff he has come to know throughout his career.
?These people used to be like brothers,? he recalled. ?Now they seem like sons and daughters to me. We do so much together.?
But, he?ll be leaving his firefighting family to be with his blood family. His wife, two sons, a daughter, a grandchild and another grandchild on the way live in Tacoma.
?I?ve always placed great joy in being with my children, and my family,? he said.
In addition to missing his coworkers, Wallin said the mission of being in the fire safety business will be hard to replicate.
?The fire department really is a unique career because we literally are out there savings people?s lives,? he said. ?We actually get to change people?s lives in such a dramatic fashion. I don?t know where else someone can do something like that.?
Wallin has been a ski patrol volunteer at Afton Alps, and said he might do the same once he relocates to Tacoma.
?First I have to teach the grandkids how to ski,? he said.
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