Spokane Valley Fire’s ‘loving grandparent,’ Commissioner Bill Anderson, retires after 54 years

Spokane Valley Fire Department commissioner Bill Anderson recently retired after devoting more than a half-century of service to the department.

The department, known as Spokane County Fire Protection District 1 when it was founded in 1940, now has 10 stations and has changed significantly since Anderson joined in 1970.

“That’s longer than I’ve been alive,” Fire Chief Frank Soto Jr. said. “I don’t think people understand the service he’s done for our community.”

Anderson remembers the day he started work like it was yesterday. He took the firefighter test on a Wednesday afternoon and was notified he was hired just as he was getting ready to leave to serve his two weeks of active duty with the Army National Guard. That pushed his first day to July 26, 1970.

This National Guard service led him to his career.

The year prior, when he was on his two weeks of active duty, he was chatting with a group of buddies about jobs. One, Greg Hesse, had just gotten hired with the Spokane Fire Department and recommended it. Hesse also just retired after a 30-year career with Spokane Fire and more than 20 years as a Spokane County Fire District 8 fire commissioner.

Anderson, who knew he didn’t want a desk job, applied to both Valley Fire and Spokane Fire. Valley Fire called him first, though Spokane Fire also offered him a job.

“They called me three weeks later, but I figured I’d better stay where I was at,” Anderson said.

Anderson was among a group of 16 hired so the department could add a third man to each fire truck on each shift, but that plan soon went sideways.

“By the time we got on, everyone was retiring,” he said. “I was thrown into the driver’s seat.”

When Anderson started, the department responded almost solely to fires and didn’t handle medical calls. Currently, about 85 percent of the department’s calls are for medical issues.

“I liked the people,” Anderson said of why he stayed so long as a firefighter. “When you went to work, you didn’t know what was going to happen. I liked the camaraderie.”

Like all firefighters, Anderson responded to some tough calls during his career. A couple of them came just after his promotion to captain. On one of his first runs after his promotion, he responded to a call involving a 3-year-old boy who had drowned in a swimming pool.

“I’ll never forget how he felt when his mother threw him at me,” Anderson said. “He had one cowboy boot on.”

Shortly after, he responded to a call involving a 10-day-old infant who suffocated in the couch cushions after falling asleep on a relative who also fell asleep.

“I couldn’t sleep at night,” Anderson said. “It got to me.”

He retired in January 2000 as a captain after serving for 28 and a half years. At the time, he had heart issues and high blood pressure, in addition to the stress from the calls that haunted him.

“There was just a lot of things,” he said. “I was burned out.”

Soon after he retired, Anderson decided to run for a fire commissioner seat. In January 2001, he was sworn in.

At the time, there was an “us vs. them” attitude between firefighters and administration, and Anderson said he wanted to get the two working together. He also had ideas on how the department could improve. Currently, the department is one of only a handful in the state and the only department in Eastern Washington to hold a Class 2 fire rating, a designation meaning the community has low insurance liability because its fire department is well-equipped to protect it.

“I wanted the department to be upgraded so that it was as good as the ones on the coast,” he said. “It turned out, we’re better.”

Now 78 years old, Anderson said he’ll miss the department, but he’s ready to go.

“I just want some time for myself,” he said.

Soto said he appreciated Anderson’s background as a firefighter because it meant he understood how things worked in the department.

“It’s been an absolute joy to be working with him,” he said. “We really appreciate him. He will be missed.”

Soto said Anderson has a kind heart and cares about how people in the department are treated.

“I don’t know Bill from way back when,” he said. “The guy I see is the loving grandparent who wants to make things good for everybody.”