Adair thankful for ‘great career’
‘I was given the opportunity to live and work in a great community’
Ukiah Valley Fire Authority Division Chief Jeff Adair retired this year after 30 years of service as a firefighter in the Ukiah Valley. While honoring his service to the community earlier this month, UVFA Chief Doug Hutchison told the Ukiah City Council that “Adair started with the Ukiah Valley Fire District in 1990 as a firefighter and quickly made his way up to engineer, then captain in 2002. And when the district employees came over to the city in 2017, he was made Division Chief and put in charge of operations and training.
“One of Jeff’s great passions in the fire service over the years has been training, and he has served as a trainer and mentor to many firefighters, not just in the Ukiah Valley, but throughout the entire county,” Hutchison said. “My time working with Jeff here was way too short. After coming here in 2019, I quickly came to appreciate his insight, his candor and his very dry sense of humor. And
we just wish you the best in retirement — you earned it, brother.”
Adair was asked to share some of his thoughts about his career and the community, and here are his responses:
Q Why did you want to be a firefighter? A It was my step-dad, Andy, who suggested I look into a job in the fire service. I was working in
South San Francisco at a medical imaging manufacturer. I had a job rather than a career. He knew I liked the outdoors and being active. Q What kept you being a firefighter? A There were several things that kept me in this job. The adrenaline rush was an early hook that was set into me. The camaraderie with my fellow firefighters has been very bonding. They’ve been like a second family throughout the years. The satisfaction of helping people when they can’t help themselves is a reward that I never got when I was just working for a paycheck and for company profits. People are usually happy to see firefighters when they arrive.
Q What has changed about the job of fire
Q What hasn’t changed about the job?
A What remains consistently high is the character level of people who gravitate to the fire service. The majority of firefighters are more givers
than takers; they are there to provide a service. That service can come at a per
sonal price with children’s school plays plus anniversary and holiday dinners missed. The young people who are coming to the fire service today are of high moral character, as they were when I started. fighter during your career? A There is much more training and education required of firefighters these days. Both entry level and continuing education requirements have increased significantly. When there are deaths or near-misses in the fire service those cases are shared with members of the fire service across the nation in an effort to learn from and to not repeat those mistakes.
Q What changed about Ukiah during your time as a firefighter? A Our community, like the whole nation, has been negatively impacted by addiction. In my job, I saw the human cost, the resource cost, and the blight associated with the
effects of addiction. We haven’t found the solution as a society yet.
Q What hasn’t changed about Ukiah?
A What is still the same about Ukiah is the small town feel. I absolutely love knowing that I’ll see someone I know when I go to the grocery store, the coffee shop, or a concert in the park. The way the community rallies around someone with a new baby, or someone going through a hardship feels different than when I lived in Santa Rosa and San Jose areas. Q Can you share one of the calls that you’ll never forget?
A A call that I’ll never forget was when I worked at our north station as a single responder on the engine. At around 4:00 a.m. there was a pounding on the front door of the two bedroom house that served as our station. I answered the door in my underwear and T-shirt as I tried to shake the cobwebs of sleep from my head. The person who was knocking handed me something which I thought was the cat that we fed at the station. When he said “my baby’s not breathing”, I quickly became fully awake.
I summoned an ambulance by radio and sat down on the sofa with my patient. I was able to determine an airway obstruction. I was trained to deal with that and I was able to clear the obstruction with a sweep of my finger ( being careful not to push anything further down into the airway). Hearing that baby cry was a huge relief to me and to his parent. The ambulance arrived and whisked them away to the hospital. I did get follow up in the form of a nice card from the parents, who lived in the apartments next door to the station, who stated everything turned out fine.
My medical training came in handy off- duty as well when I was able to recognize signs and symptoms of heart attack in my stepdad. He thought he was merely having heartburn. Q
Anything else you would like to say to the community and your co-workers?
A
To my co-workers I say thank you. Thank you for the loyalty, the work ethic, the trust, and for the laughs. The laughter helped to keep the sanity through some difficult experiences. As I promoted, my success was directly dependent upon those who worked for and beside me. I had great coworkers.
To the community I also thank you. I appreciate the memories of the school presentations and field trips to the fire station. It felt good when we were waved to in the engine as we went about our day. Thank you for the cooperation when we were enforcing fire codes or burning regulations. I was given the opportunity to live and work in a great community. I was passionate about my job and I would recommend the career to others.