Welcome to our series, #WHYoming
We are highlighting people from around our communities and asking them a few questions. We want to learn a little about them and see why they chose this great state to raise their families, start their businesses, or simply to ask — Why Wyoming?
This month is we talked to Sweetwater County Fire District No. 1 Fire Chief, Scott Kitchner.
What first brought you to Wyoming and what made you decide to stay?
I didn’t exactly choose Wyoming, Wyoming chose me. My parents moved me here when I was about 8 years old. My mom went to work at the hospital and my dad worked out in the oil fields, so that’s how we landed in Rock Springs. But staying? That was my choice. Rock Springs gets a bad rap around the state sometimes, but it’s a good community. It’s a good place to raise kids, the schools were really solid when my kids were growing up, and the people here are just good people. I wouldn’t trade it.
You started your career at Jim Bridger Power Plant, how did you end up becoming a firefighter?
Right out of high school I hired on at the power plant and worked there for about four years. While I was out there, I got on their emergency response team; firefighting, EMT work, rope rescue, and that’s really when I discovered I genuinely loved it. Around that same time the fire district was forming, so I started volunteering. When the opportunity came up to put in for a full-time position, I jumped on it and got lucky enough to get hired. That was 1997, and I’ve been here ever since.
What is your favorite part of the job?
Just being able to help people. Being there for somebody on potentially the worst day of their life, that means something. And honestly, the unknown keeps you going too. You never know what the next call is going to be. It could be helping an elderly woman who fell and broke her hip, or it could be a car fire or a house fire. No two calls are ever really the same. That unpredictability, combined with knowing you’re giving back to your community, that’s what gets you out of bed every shift.
What does training look like for the Rock Springs Fire Department?
It’s constant. We’re divided into two battalions, Battalion 1 trains on Mondays and Battalion 2 on Wednesdays, and then once a month we all come together as one full department. On top of that there are weekend classes, online training, and we send people out of town for specialized courses. We put in hundreds of hours a year. During the summer months we’re outside pulling hose, spraying water, doing live fire training in our burn building north of town, cutting up cars, all of it. It never really stops.
What is your proudest accomplishment as fire chief?
That one’s easy. We have never had a serious firefighter injury or a fatality, not since I’ve been chief. We pride ourselves on doing the job safely and watching out for our people. I think that says everything about the kind of people we have on this department and the quality of our training. Everything else is secondary to bringing your people home.
What do you like to do outside of the firehouse?
Pretty much everything Wyoming has to offer. We have a family cabin up in Pinedale, so we spend a lot of time up there. I ride Harleys, go out on side-by-sides, camp, hike, fish, hunt, shoot, all of it. But if I had to pick one thing, it’s just getting up into the mountains. There’s something about being out there in the middle of nowhere where nobody can bother you. It just clears everything out, the stress, all of it. You can’t beat it.
What does it mean to you to live in Wyoming?
I think Wyoming is a very unique place and we’re lucky to live here. We have freedoms that a lot of people don’t have and sometimes take for granted. It’s a big state, but it’s a small population, and you can’t go anywhere without running into somebody you know. There’s a cowboy culture, a can-do attitude, and people who genuinely look out for each other. I see it as a firefighter all the time; somebody has a house fire, loses everything, and within hours people are calling the station asking how they can help. Rock Springs is good at that. Wyoming is good at that. I honestly can’t imagine living anywhere else.
If you’d like us to interview yourself or someone you know for #WHYoming, please send us suggestions to james@sweetwaternow.com
