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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Olympia Fire Department, Assistant Chief Retires
Date: January 21, 2015
Released by:
Olympia Assistant Fire Chief Pat Dale has announced his retirement beginning January 31, 2015, after 33 years of fire service including 16 years of service to the citizens of Olympia and Thurston County at the Olympia Fire Department. Chief Dale intends to pursue fire service teaching and other fun adventures during his retirement. Chief Dale has the opportunity of a lifetime, teaching Fire Ground Command and firefighting techniques, nationally and internationally, with an established training company based in Phoenix Arizona. Prior to coming to Olympia, Chief Dale worked through the ranks to Battalion Chief at the Kent Fire Department. A life-long area resident, Chief Dale began his fire service career as a volunteer at the Tumwater Fire Department after graduating from Tumwater High School.
Chief Dale contributed more to the firefighters at Olympia and in Thurston County than can be listed here. A few of his many accomplishments include: developing the Olympia command training center for fire officer training - purchase and deployment of Olympia’s first articulated aerial ladder truck - development of a working and training relationship with Bates Technical College in Tacoma - initiated and managed a joint fire training program for Olympia, Lacey Fire District 3 and City of Tumwater - brought to Olympia, International Association of Fire Fighters, Firefighter Survival training class, this is the only such approved course and teaching location in the State of Washington - and earned a number of personal medals for mountain biking at the World Police and Fire Games.
Chief Dale was especially invested in firefighter safety. Along with all of the training programs he developed to Olympia, he worked with one very special safety program that has been seen locally, regionally nationally and internationally by fire service members. Chief Dale was instrumental in producing the Mark Noble safety video for firefighters. Mark Noble, was the first line of duty death in the history of the Olympia Fire Department. Before Noble died of brain cancer from diesel exhaust in fire stations, he sat for a moving video interview in which he talked openly about his cancer, warned firefighters about the risks of firefighting and highlighted measures to assure respiratory safety. Without Chief Dale’s support and subsequent distribution of the video, this incredibly important message might never have been shared.
People may remember the big fires in Olympia over the past 16 years but what is more important in Chief Dale’s career are the many house fires that were contained to just one room and the fire extinguishments at Georgia Pacific in 2007 that averted a major catastrophe. The knowledge, vision, training and energy that Chief Dale brought to his job translated to positive outcomes for Olympia.
Chief Dale’s extensive knowledge of firefighting and his ability to share that information with new officers and firefighters will be greatly missed in Olympia and Thurston County.
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File photos of Chief Dale are available from Olympia Fire Department, via a reply to this email or phone call, 360-753-8348
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