Al Giddings will finish his tenure as fire chief of the Haines Volunteer Fire Department (HVFD) in January, following a decision not to seek reelection. In November, the department elected longtime firefighter Brian Clay to assume the position.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to a degree I can’t even explain,” Giddings said in an interview with the CVN. “It has been life changing.”

Giddings, who’s in his sixties, decided not to run for reelection partly to free up time to pursue an ambition he has had since high school: to go to seminary and become a minister. He plans to stay involved with the department as a part-time firefighter-EMT.

Giddings joined the HVFD about 10 years ago, after his family moved to Haines from Adak, where he was a commercial fisherman and tugboat operator. Like all members of the HVFD, Giddings started out as a probationary firefighter, a yearlong training role for newcomers. Unlike most members, though, he had already gone through a fire academy and paramedic training and worked for years as a paid firefighter in Los Angeles.

Giddings was no neophyte, but a year of being told things he already knew didn’t irritate him. Working his way up from the bottom, he said, was crucial to becoming acquainted with the people and particularities of the department.

“I came in saying, yes, I want to learn the Haines way,” Giddings said. “The thing about joining a department—it’s not about fire engines and hoses. It’s about relationships with the brotherhood, the sisterhood, the firefighters… My focus was: I want to become part of the family.”

The fire department has elections every year. Giddings was elected fire chief in 2018, taking over for Clay, who stepped down from the leadership position.

Clay has served the HVFD for more than 25 years and, in addition to his fire service, he works at Bigfoot Auto and has been on the school board for nearly 20 years. He was re-elected to the board this fall. Clay’s main goal as fire chief, he said, will be to recruit volunteers. Clay said Giddings did a “fantastic” job, particularly helping to keep the community safe during the pandemic.

Longtime volunteer firefighter Matt Boron said both Giddings and Clay have shown their commitment to the department. “It’s a heck of a job to volunteer on our EMS crew, let alone to be the chief,” Boron said.

He called Giddings “a man of impeccable integrity” who brought expertise and passion to the department. “He had a pretty tough job with COVID and the (December) disaster, and I thought that he did a good job managing that largely as a volunteer.”

Giddings said the pandemic and the December weather event were two of the biggest challenges for the department during his time as chief. He credited his colleagues and the dozens of volunteers who assisted the response last December. “I happened to be sitting in the seat during those events, but I would be so uncomfortable to have anything said (like), ‘You oversaw that.’”

Also during Giddings’ tenure, the fire department re-established a volunteer search and rescue company, about a year and a half ago. The idea came about because there had been several search-and-rescue calls but no organized group to respond. “It’s budding; it’s growing,” Giddings said. Still, over the course of his interview with the CVN, Giddings shifted the focus from his role as chief to his colleagues. “I would feel funny and awkward if the article was all about Al and not about the members who deserve to be recognized.”

The fire department, which is composed of two full-time and two part-time paid members and about 40 volunteers, has seen a spike in emergency calls in recent years. A decade ago the department would receive about 210 or 230 calls a year, Giddings said. For the past two years it has received about 400. “It has exponentially increased, and we don’t know why,” Giddings said. Historically about 90% of calls are for medical services. As of last week, 38 calls so far this year have been fire-related.

Al Badgley, who has served the department in various capacities, including as a paid member, since 1981, credited Giddings for helping the department acquire new equipment, including an ambulance, and said Giddings has gone on calls in the middle of the night so volunteers wouldn’t have to. “He has a dedication for making himself better and, in turn,” making others better too, Badgley said.

Giddings started taking an online seminary class in October and will begin a more intensive course schedule in the spring. “It’s exciting. It’s fun—but also interesting being in my sixties. I understand it more.”

When he was younger, Giddings said, his desire to go to seminary was rooted in a search for God. But over the years he has come to believe firmly in God’s existence. “In a sense, I want to be able to be skilled where I can bring that message forth…not like I’m going to talk you to death about the Bible, but I can expose my life and show you what God has done in (it).”

There’s a connection, as Giddings sees it, between serving in the fire department and becoming a minister. Both are journeys in “understanding the frailty of life” and both involve instilling hope in community members.

Still, a wish to pursue seminary wasn’t the only reason Giddings decided not to run for reelection this year. He also said that, after uncertainty during the first two years of the pandemic, the department’s COVID protocol and training have been established, so now is a stable time for a change in leadership. Giddings said he would fully assist Clay, whom he called “very capable,” with the transition.

At the end of the interview, Giddings teared up reflecting on the department. “I cannot say enough about these volunteers and the career staff. They make the difference. They make the department. Not the chief.”