This week’s A Portage Life in the Spotlight is Thomas Fieffer. Fieffer has served as the Chief of the Portage Fire Department for the past three years but has a career in Portage that dates back 19 years.
Fieffer has been a lifelong resident of Northwest Indiana. He is married to his wife, Tracy, who was his high school sweetheart and they have two children ages twelve and eight. Before starting to work at Portage, Fieffer started as a volunteer in Chesterton at the age of 19. He then moved on to a job at the Midwest Steel division of National Steel for one year before moving to the Portage Fire Department.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be a firefighter. I think all of us have, at some point in time, where you want to grow up to be a fireman and I never grew out of it” Fieffer said.
As Fire Chief, Fieffer oversees the day to day operations of a department that consists of 61 uniformed firefighters, five administrators and one civilian secretary. Before serving as Chief, Fieffer started out as a firefighter. He was then promoted to engineer, followed by Lieutenant, then was again promoted to Battalion Chief of Training. His final post before being promoted to Chief was Captain, a role he served in for 11 years. Throughout his career, Fieffer has served in each rank of the Portage Fire Department.
“We are all crossed trained, we are just not fireman, we are all medically trained and out of the 61, 46 of the personnel are paramedics and our goal is to have 61 paramedics running around here” Fieffer added.
Fieffer has served in the Portage Fire Department for 19 years and commented on the city’s continued growth over the years.
“It is amazing. When I started, the city basically ended at Lute Road. We covered some of Route 6, but Lute Road was really the end of the city,” he said “There was nothing else of Route 6, so to drive through and see all of the new stuff there is kind of odd in that manner.”
The Fire Department has many prevention education programs in place to educate people about the dangers of fires and what they can do to prevent them. During Fire Prevention Week, the department goes into all of the elementary schools and educates students on what to do in the case of a fire and how to prevent a fire from starting.
“Fire prevention is our biggest deal. That what we really focus on,” he added “Teaching you to be safe is better than coming to help you after the fact.”
Another major program is the fire prevention open house that is held at Station One on Swanson Road the Saturday of Fire Prevention Week in which the community can come in and see what the fire department does on a daily basis.
“One thing that we do, and this is a huge thing and that is our Smoke Detector Program where we offer free smoke detectors to citizens that need them” he said.
The major initiative that is part of the Smoke Detector Program is the program that the fire department puts on with JJ’s Pizza. During Day Light Savings Time in the fall, the saying is “Change Your Clocks, Change Your Batteries” and the PFD will ride along with JJ Pizza delivery personnel and if you have a working smoke detector in your home, your pizza will be free. If your smoke detector is not working, you will still have to pay for your pizza, but the PFD will provide you with a functioning smoke detector.
“Fire prevention is our biggest deal. That what we really focus on,” he added “Teaching you to be safe is better than coming to help you after the fact.”
The PFD also puts on periodical classes for fire prevention and safety as well as C.P.R. classes for the general public.
Because of his continued commitment to providing a safe environment and his many dedicated years of service to the Portage community, Thomas Fieffer is undoubtedly A Portage Life in the Spotlight.
“I think I have the greatest job in the world. This is a great place to do it, you know I have been here for a long time. I couldn’t see being a firefighter anywhere else or doing anything anywhere else. This is a great place, it is a very unique place to work” he concluded.
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