It’s time for one Okotoks firefighter to hang up his boots.
Fire Chief Ken Thevenot is retiring from service after 30 years, including 18 years as chief, the last 11 of which have been with Okotoks Fire Services.
“I kind of have mixed feelings about it – it’s bittersweet in some ways,” said Thevenot. “It’s been a pretty good career. I’ve been honoured and privileged to work my way up to the rank of fire chief for that many years.”
His career began in Thompson, Man. where after volunteering for two years Thevenot landed a full-time position and worked his way up to lieutenant, deputy fire chief, and then fire chief for six years before relocating to Okotoks in October 2008.
He had lived in Calgary for a year in 1985 and always thought he’d like to get back out west if the opportunity arose.
“I saw a job opening here and we came out for a visit, and I was lucky enough to get the fire chief position here,” said Thevenot.
In his early days he was part of some major events, including a forest fire in 1989 that had 5,000 evacuees needing help from the local fire department. As a young firefighter that was an exciting time, he said.
“It was tiring, of course, but that kind of started my career and what I wanted to do,” said Thevenot. “We had some big events in that area but we always managed to get through them.”
It armed him to take on some of the challenges in Okotoks, such as the 2013 flood, which he calls one of the highlights of his career for the opportunities it provided to help people through an emergency situation.
During his 30 years in fire services a lot has changed, he said, from equipment to operational tactics and the overall business of running departments – not to mention how firefighters respond to calls.
“When I first started on the trucks we used to ride on the tailboard on the back of the truck,” said Thevenot. “That was so exciting for me, to do those sorts of things. You don’t see that today, firefighters riding on the backs of trucks.”
There have also been a lot of changes in Okotoks over 11 years, he said.
“We replaced a lot of our apparatus, we’ve gone to a full-time service,” said Thevenot.
It’s a far cry now from the nine full-time staff on board when he started in Okotoks in 2008. Now, the Town employs 24 full-time staff, which allows for six firefighters per shift as well as chief, deputies and administrative staff, he said.
There are also some part-time staff and a volunteer contingent as well.
“We’ve grown quite a bit,” said Thevenot.
In 2013, the Town opened its new emergency services building on Woodhaven Drive, which housed a second fire station. Though it was initially staffed with only volunteers, the Town changed its operations in 2018 to have full-time staff work out of its south station.
Managing the two stations, as well as a relatively small composite department made up of full-time, part-time and volunteer staff takes a lot of resource management – and that’s something Deputy Fire Chief Pat MacIsaac said Thevenot thrives at.
“I’ve learned lots about resource management from Ken Thevenot and how to manage a small department and be everything to everybody,” said MacIsaac.
Their journey together began back in Manitoba around 2003. MacIsaac was working for the fire commissions office and Thevenot brought a contingent of members from the Thompson department for training with the Urban Search and Rescue team.
When he wanted a career change, MacIsaac didn’t hesitate to take the deputy fire chief position under Thevenot’s direction in Thompson.
“I think we kind of complemented each other very well,” he said. “We worked together and were able to fill in each other’s gaps.
“I can’t overestimate how much I’ve learned from him in how to be a good, compassionate fire chief. He was my model.”
MacIsaac came to Okotoks to be Thevenot’s deputy fire chief again in 2013, saying he felt lucky to be hired by him for a second time.
He said Thevenot has always excelled at meeting the needs of all his firefighting team members as well as the community they serve, which is not an easy task.
“All eyes are on you as the chief and you have to have strength of character and the backbone and the courage to go along with that,” said MacIsaac. “He certainly modelled a lot of that.”
One of Thevenot’s lasting legacies is the focus on customer service in the department, he said.
Sometimes it’s easy to think about victims and incidents rather than the people behind them, and he said Thevenot has worked to change that mentality in Okotoks.
“Ken has always been a huge customer service advocate,” said MacIsaac. “Sometimes the outcomes aren’t good, but you can always try to make the situation a bit better.”
He said the chief will be greatly missed by him and the entire department.
Thevenot said he’ll miss the work himself, but decided the 30-year mark was the right time to leave and spend more time with his family after spending so many years on-call.
“My family sacrificed a lot over the years, so now I’m trying to give back to them as well, to spend some more time with them, spend time with my wife and my grandkids,” said Thevenot.
He said the people he’s worked with have made his career remarkable and he has enjoyed his time with the Town of Okotoks, building up a fire department that had to adapt as the community it served continued to grow.
“Not just me, but our team. I think together we’ve made a difference in the fire service, but I think at the end of the day we’re providing a better service today than the day when I walked in here,” said Thevenot. “I can leave proud, leave knowing we have made a difference in our community.”
