Sept. 20, 2024
Camano Island Fire & Rescue’s longest-serving member will retire on Sept. 30.
After 34 years with Camano Fire – and 12 years with Snohomish County Fire District No. 1 – Assistant Chief Craig Helgeland has finally hung up his helmet and filed his final fire inspection report.
“I cannot adequately express how grateful I am for Craig’s leadership and his commitment to this fire district and this community,” Chief Levon Yengoyan said. “His decades of hard work and dedication have left a lasting impact on me and on the many, many firefighters who were fortunate enough to work with and learn from him.”
To celebrate his retirement, dozens of friends and colleagues dropped by the Vista/Madrona fire station on Friday, Sept. 20 for a farewell open house & lunch.
Community members, firefighters from other departments, and past and present Camano Fire personnel had a chance to thank Craig for his years of service and reminisce while flipping through scrapbooks that documented newsworthy moments in the history of Camano Fire.
ICOM dispatch honored Craig with a last call broadcast: “Chief 102 – Craig Helgeland – ICOM announcing their last alarm at station 1-4. After 34 years of dedication, service, and leadership to Camano Island Fire & Rescue, your time in the fire service has come to a close. We hope you enjoy your retirement and wish you the best in the next chapter of your life.”
Though he’s still wrapping his head around what retirement will look like, Craig said he is immensely grateful for the time he spent working for the people of Camano Island.
“Thirty years. My goodness. The blink of an eye,” Craig said. “Thirty-four years I have been here and I’ve seen a lot. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to do so, that they trusted me at this level to protect them,” he said. “I’m honored to have been allowed to do this for them.”
Craig & Camano Fire: A mutual evolution
In his storied career, Helgeland has seen just about everything – from rescuing cats in trees, to investigating arson, to building new fire stations, and responding in 1995 to the massive Twin City Foods blaze in Stanwood.
When he moved to Camano in 1990, Camano Fire – as it is today – didn’t exist. Three independent, all-volunteer fire districts served the maybe7,500 full-time residents.
“The prerequisite was, to the real estate person and the builder, it needed to be close to a fire station,” Craig said.
By 1999, Camano Fire began to evolve away from the all-volunteer model. The district hired its first three full-time, paid, career firefighters – affectionately referred to by Craig as “the three caballeros.” They worked 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with volunteers supplementing the staffing and responding to calls that came in outside those hours.
“That was a big, big benchmark in our agency, Craig said. “We went from an all-volunteer agency to a combination agency, they call it. And then eventually, by 2004, 2005, we’re looking at 24-hour crews – another benchmark.”
That growth led to another evolution – fire station upgrades. During Craig’s time with Camano Fire, he was part of the sale or remodel of fire stations originally built in the 1940s and ‘50s.
In 2007, district voters approved a $10 million bond that funded seismic upgrades to the 1972-era Country Club station, construction of a new station to replace the 1953-era Vista/Madrona station, and with the addition of FEMA grant funds, a rebuild of the 1977-era Terry’s Corner station. Station 1 at Camano City, built in 1946, was sold in early 2019.
A wealth of institutional expertise
In his time with Camano Fire, Craig has led two key district functions: Fire investigation and fire station operational maintenance.
Craig’s introduction to fire investigation came purely by chance. Early in his career with Snohomish County Fire, he responded to a fire at the Golden West Motel on Highway 99. The fire marshal at the time told Craig to go to some apartments across the street and do a ‘knock and talk’ once the fire was extinguished.
“So I do, and lo and behold, the first door that I knock on the fellow that answers the door is covered in soot,” Craig said. “And I’m thinking, bingo! Somebody must know something. And I said, ‘Do you know anything about the fire across the street?’ And there’s this sheepish grin. ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘You need to come with me.’ So I march him across Highway 99 to the fire marshal. That was my introduction to fire investigation. I was hooked from there.”
Since then, Craig has played an active role in investigating fires large and small for Camano Fire – including one memorable instance where someone set fire to an outhouse on a construction site. For Craig, the fascination is in the science of fire behavior – the details and minutiae – that help him form a hypothesis that he can investigate to its logical conclusion.
When he wasn’t collaborating with local law enforcement on fire investigations, Craig kept busy maintaining the four fire stations in the district – a task that he will not miss in retirement.
Between coordinating the replacement of fluorescent lighting to LED lighting, keeping several different HVAC systems functioning properly – and replacing them when they reach the end of their useful life – managing hot water tanks and furnaces and heat pumps that maintenance requires constant oversight.
“Remember, the firefighters live there 24 hours a day for two days at a time,” he said. “So it’s like their home away from home. You’ve got to make sure that it’s comfortable and well maintained and it takes care of our people. But I will not miss the minutiae of facility maintenance issues.”
Looking back, looking ahead
After a combined 46-plus years, it might be surprising to learn that the fire service wasn’t Craig’s first calling – though it was his first aspiration.
“According to my baby book, my mother said that I wanted to be a fireman at the age of three,” he said. “Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not but…”
Craig began his career with Ford Motor Company working as liaison, a service manager, service writer, and with warranty and policy administration.
“All that boring stuff,” he said. “But my heart was in the fire service.”
Reflecting on his decades of service, Craig firmly believes the fire service is the best job in the world.
“I’ve spent more than half my life here,” he said. “I’ve been here 34 years and I’m turning 67. I have been here more than half my life. This is your other family away from home. I’ll miss the camaraderie. It’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood. It really is.”
So what’s next for Craig?
Easing into retirement – but still contributing to the next generation of firefighters.
“When you retire, you need to have projects or you need to have something to keep your brain engaged,” he said. “That’s just for your good health.”
Traveling, completing his ‘honey do-list’ of projects around the house, and working on his classic cars are some of Craig’s first priorities. After that? Continuing to serve as a, International Fire Services Accreditation Congress-certified senior evaluator for new firefighters completing training.