After nearly seven years as chief and a long career with the Roanoke Rapids Fire Department, Jason Patrick is retiring at the end of the month and will begin working in the private sector.

“The opportunity has come up and at this point I have my years in, my years of service in to allow me to be able to retire from the city with full benefits,” he said Thursday.

He said family was a major part of the decision. “It will suit my family better at this point. It’s a little bit more flexible schedule. I just feel like it was going to suit my family better, allow me more time with my little girl who’s starting to come up in age. It’s going to allow me to spend more time with her, hopefully, or at least a little bit more time and I just feel like it’s maybe time to try something different.”

Patrick has been with the city fire department for about 28 years and full five months and with sick leave he gets credit for 30 years of service.

“I’m going to miss my coworkers here at the fire department,” he said. “Not only at the fire department, but throughout the city because as you’re working with the city you all become like a big family. Even though there may be public works employees or police or administration, you still work together for the common good of the citizens and the city in general so we all work great as a team.”

City Manager Kelly Traynham said during Tuesday’s council meeting that Patrick will be retiring “with 30 years of credible service.”

She said, “We certainly will miss Jason very much but his contributions to the city will be lasting a lot longer than his years of service with the city.”

Life around the fire service

Patrick’s life has revolved around fire service. He is a third generation firefighter whose grandfather was one of the charter members of the Davie Fire Department in the mid-60s. “He was one of the charter members that helped get that up and running and then my dad got into the department later. I grew up around Davie since I was probably 10 or 12.”

Growing up around the fire department, he said, “You get to the point where I’d say it kind of gets in your blood.”

And it’s a calling. “Not everybody’s up for doing it. Not everybody can do it — not just the fire service but just in public safety in general.”

When he got out of high school he was a junior member of the Davie department. He took classes at the community college and also took fire classes at night. “I finally came to the point where I said, ‘You know, I think I want to make a career out of this.’”

In making the decision, he said, “I knew you wouldn’t make as much money as you would in the private sector.”

But he knew he wanted to help people. “I’ve always been the type of person that was always there to help people. I was always brought up that way. My family was brought up to serve others. In the fire service I was volunteering and helping people and when I got the opportunity to get a job where I could help more people and actually draw a paycheck it was kind of like icing on the cake.”

He had applied to Rocky Mount and Roanoke Rapids. Roanoke Rapids called first. “I probably could have made more money in Rocky Mount but I decided I wanted to stay home. There were a lot of perks by working at home and staying here and serving those that you know. The people that you work with, the citizens, a lot of these people I went to school with, I grew up with … I wanted to serve in the community I lived in.”

‘Making a difference in your community’

He hasn’t regretted the decision. “It’s been very rewarding to know that you’re making a difference in your community.”

It’s like the annual Fire Safety Fair coming up later this month. “We’re able to support kids in our community. This is the community that I grew up in and a lot of the firefighters that work here grew up here. We’re helping people in our community, recognizing veterans like we do with our veterans breakfast. We’re looking after our own. It’s very rewarding for me to be able to serve here.”

The first day

His first day was April 1, 1997, starting as a Roanoke Rapids firefighter at 19.

“At that time I didn’t know that I was planning to stay here, but over the years it’s been a blessing to be able to serve the community that I lived in and was raised in.”

In January of 2000 he was promoted to engineer and then in October of 2002 he was promoted to lieutenant which was a supervisor’s position. 

He stayed a lieutenant until April of 2008 when he was promoted to battalion chief, a job which put him in charge of an entire shift.

In 2015 he was promoted to assistant chief of logistics where he oversaw maintenance, apparatus, equipment, and made purchases.

And then came December 2018 and his promotion to fire chief.

The assistant chief of logistics helped him learn about trucks, the costs of maintenance, the cost of turnout gear. “You’re dealing with a lot of numbers and figures. When I got to be in this position (chief), when it comes to doing a budget and knowing what this costs, it helps you.”

The battalion chief job helped him learn about managing people. “One of the hard things is that everybody's different. You have to know what motivates (one person) might not motivate (another person) … I enjoyed that because I got to work alongside the young guys closely and I tried to be a mentor as much as I could and tried to lead them in the right direction as much as I could — not only from the career side, but sometimes on a personal side.”

A new direction

While he could not get into specifics of the new private sector job, he says he believes his longevity in the fire service was a factor. “For somebody to be somewhere for almost 28 and a half years, I think that probably says a lot. I used to not call 48 young but I do now because I’ll be 48 in a couple of weeks. I feel like I’ve still got a lot left in me to give and maybe I can go to this company and try to make a difference."

The state of the fire department

With the accomplishments that have been made at the fire department and in the city, he said, “I feel like maybe I can go somewhere else and help too. We couldn’t have done any of this without the team we’ve had here and working together at the fire department and the city. I feel like they have backed me and we’ve supported each other.”

He said he believes the fire department has accomplished many things over the last six and a half years — and even before that.

“My whole thing has been let’s leave it better than we’ve found it — not that it was bad when we came in — but I tell the guys with me leaving I hope they pick up where we’re at now and they leave it better than it is right now.”

He believes the fire department is in a good position. “There’s a lot of capable people here that can step in and continue moving it forward.”

The department, he said, has been blessed with grant opportunities. 

Over the last six years the department has received around $900,000 in grants and donations. “We’ve got a lot of new equipment that we were able to get through grants,” he said — thermal imaging cameras, fire suppression equipment, hoses, nozzles, forcible entry tools, and extrication tools.

Needs going forward

There will be needs going forward, Patrick said. “We’ve still got some vehicles that need to be upgraded and replaced on the suppression side. Even though we’ve got those two new trucks, there are still a couple of things that need to be upgraded.”

Training remains crucial, he said. “We’ve got a lot of young people. They’re hungry to learn. We’ve just got to get back to find a way to upgrade their training. I think these guys are going to do that without a doubt.”

The department needs to continue to embrace technology and use it to its advantage, he said. “We’ve already started that but we need to continue because that’s the world we live in today. I think we need to get to a position where we start planning for the future, and not constantly have to go back and play catchup.”

Highlights

Resourcefulness comes to mind when Patrick talks about career highlights. “These guys, the knowledge that they have to be able to pull together and get things done when you don’t think you’re going to be able to do it. The fire service has got people with all kinds of knowledge in different fields.”

And then there is the family of firefighters. “My family has grown since I’ve been here. We become a family working alongside each other day in and day out. They’re basically family at this point. I’m going to miss coming in here every day, miss the guys, miss the camaraderie that you get from being a part of this organization and fire service in general.”