A familiar firefighter will be saying farewell Friday as he retires after 41 years of battling flames.
Wellington Fire Chief John Lloyd will be leaving his position on Friday, March 12 after spending more than 21 years in the city’s service.
Lloyd started as a firefighter for the United States Air Force after he was selected to go to firefighter specialist school by the military.
“I always said the Air Force picked my career for me,” said Lloyd with a smile. “But once I got into it, I really liked it,”
Lloyd said in the Air Force, fighting structural fires was secondary to working on aircraft crashes and military firefighters were trained to battle both. Thoughts on firefighting were much different back then.
“Actually, the firefighter regulation was written that you would never have a structure fire and a crash at the same time. That was a myth they had 41 years ago that they finally got out,” said Lloyd.
His first assignment was at Langley Field in Virginia — a missile base at the time before heading to Alaska.
Lloyd spent 20 years in the Air Force, traveling around the world including Thailand, Mexico and England before settling down at McConnell Air Force Base where he retired as Deputy Chief.
The chief came by way of Wellington through an ad in the Wichita newspaper. After he interviewed on a Friday, he was asked to return that following Wednesday to become the fire chief where he has remained since Feb. 6, 1989.
Lloyd describes getting the job as “perfect” and says he’s loved his time in Wellington serving the community, friends and neighbors. He says it’s just “time” for retirement.
“It’s time. 41 years in the fire service, it’s just time. I’ve done quite a bit while I was here. It’s time for the next chief to come in. I’ve always gone by the philosophy of you do the best that you can while you are here and try to improve the place that you are at and if everyone does that, it will continue to get better,” Lloyd said.
Surrounded by dozens of firefighting bits of memorabilia collected through the years — including his first helmet bought by his wife — Lloyd says the allure of the sirens will always be with him.
“The tough part of it is going to be not going out there. The day-to-day routine I won’t miss but the emergencies, the fires...you really get to where you don’t like to see people have tragedies but as a firefighter, that’s what you do. You bring order to chaos and that’s how I will always look at it,” said Lloyd.
With retirement looming, Lloyd says he will be spending some much needed quality time with his family.
“They’ve seen me get called out during dinner and everything...the kids grew up with it and my wife has been ever since I was in the Air Force and she even helped me when I went through my first school. It’s been a family deal. It’s going to be hard not coming to a fire station to work after 41 years,” he said.
Lloyd also plans to help other firefighters train through the Kansas Fire Rescue Institute and stay involved in the State Chief’s Association and State Training Commission.
“I’m going to keep my hand in it. I couldn’t take myself completely out of it.” Lloyd said.
A come-and-go retirement party for Chief Lloyd will be held from 3 to 5 p.m., Friday, March 12 at Wellington City Hall.
Wellington, Kan. —
