FOLEY, Ala. — Ask Jamie Hinton about the watershed event of his years as chief of Foley Fire Department and his answer is a date, namely, Sept. 11, 2001.

As Hinton steps down as fire chief effective the end of the month, it isn’t as if the Baldwin County native doesn’t have a world of landmark events locally to look back upon. It’s a list of achievements and tragedies, high points and lows, that typically go with years in public safety.

But Hinton, who grew up in Loxley where he got his start as a junior firefighter at 17, is remembering people first and foremost. It’s a litany of people living and dead that Hinton said have contributed to him personally and professionally.

Ralph Schumacher. Bob Krueger. Morgan Odom. Fred Burkle. Valton Long. Godbee Smith. Charlie Ebert Jr. Jack Heilmeier. Joe and Frank Hellmich. Sherman Dyess.

“I’ve learned so much from them over the years and tried to take what I could from them,” said Hinton, who graduated from Robertsdale High School in 1988.

Hinton, who came to FFD in April 1999, minces no words when asked who he will miss most when he leaves for the private sector.

“My guys,” he said without hesitation, they being the 14 other paid firefighters currently at FFD; 14 that Hinton named individually during the course of the interview.

“They’d follow me to the gates of hell with a water pistol. I’ve told them time and time again they make me look good.”

Besides the 15 paid firefighters at FFD, the department also has 14 part-time firefighters.

Asked how FFD firefighters are taking his resignation, Hinton said, “They don’t like it. They’re not crazy about it.”

At the same time, the chief said his firefighters have commented on the relief they see in him since submitting his resignation by letter to the mayor and council on Jan. 11.

“We have assembled the finest bunch of firefighters there is. I’m proud that I could be a part of this. It’s been quite a ride. The citizens of Foley should be proud of what they have here.”

PUT IN APPLICATION

Hinton was working in Orange Beach when a friend of his, Joe Bouzan, then FFD administrator, told him a position was coming open in the Foley department. Hinton, who had been a volunteer fire chief in Loxley, put in an application and was selected.

He was looking forward to working a 40-hour a week job and having evenings off with his children, Hinton recalls.

Somewhere around November 2000, Hinton was talked into running for the volunteer chief position. He and longtime Foley firefighter Ralph Schumacher were nominated for the poisition in December. The voting resulted in a tie.

“Nobody knew what to do,” Hinton said.

After several other votes were taken, Hinton was eventually elected by a single vote. He became volunteer fire chief in January 2001 with Schumacher and Rich Glenn assuming positions as assistant chiefs.

Of that first year as chief, Hinton simply recalls, “2001 was just one of those years.”

For one, whereas FFD had a total of 21 responses in December 2000, the number jumped to 41 in January 2001. (FFD logged 340 total responses during 2000 and 397 during 2001.)

“We thought we were run into the dirt,” Hinton said, noting FFD today typically has over 100 responses every month.

Then, in May 2001, Schumacher was diagnosed with cancer. For the next year, Schumacher stayed as involved with FFD as his illness would allow, Hinton said.

That same year twins died in a fire in Beulah Heights. The tragedy became the springboard for a smoke detector program that FFD continues to this day. Lane Clemons, now a captain at FFD, spearheaded the program, according to Hinton.

Like most Americans, Hinton remembers what he was doing when the news broke on Sept. 11, 2001. He and Scott Bishop, now a lieutenant at FFD, were out behind the old fire station on North Alston Street looking at a fire truck. It was Clemons who came outside and told them they should come in and look at a newscast on the television about an airplane striking the World Trade Center.

“I watched those towers fall that day and I’ve never watched it again, not even with all the programs on TV about it,” Hinton said.

He remembers the spirit shown locally following the World Trade Center attack when a couple of hundred people gathered in the park and sang “America the Beautiful.”

“I’ll always remember how the people pulled together here,” Hinton said.

The trying year that was ended with three “paid guys” at FFD: Hinton, Clemons and Bishop.

‘I THINK WE KIND OF PROVED OURSELVES TO THEM’

“We formed some very good coalitions in 2002, one of them with the FBI,” Hinton said.

Those coalitions came about as FFD was increasingly called to aid in the disposal of drug labs that were found across the county. And there was the “white powder” scare that year in the Baldwin County Courthouse in Bay Minette. Again, FFD was called in.

“I think we kind of proved ourselves to them,” Hinton said regarding the FBI.

FFD also worked closely with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Agency, and Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office as well as the FBI.

In March 2002 Ralph Schumacher died and Hinton delivered one of the eulogies.

“That was the first funeral I’d ever put together,” Hinton said. “I decided we’d give him a send-off like no other. It was a fitting tribute.”

Dozens of fire departments from the area and across the state took part in the funeral procession as Schumacher’s casket was delivered to its resting place by means of a fire truck.

A month or so later, Bon Secour firefighter Faye Bishop was killed in a fire truck accident, and Hinton and FFD firefighter Tommy Gebhart had to break the news to her husband, something Hinton said he never wants to have to do again.

In June of that year FFD moved into its present fire station at South Alston Street and West Verbena Avenue. FFD received a $91,000 grant from Homeland Security that year and was also approved as a training site for the Firefighter I course.

While 497 responses were logged during 2002, by the following year the annual total jumped to 653.

Hinton recalls that early in 2003 he received his first call about a structure fire with people trapped inside. He and Gebhart, along with firefighters James Wood and John Oliver, arrived at the scene along with Foley police officers.

Oliver went into the burning house twice and pulled a man and woman out. Both eventually succumbed to their injuries but, as Hinton notes, “Unlike so many other instances like that, we got them out.”

For his efforts, Oliver received FFD’s first “Medal of Honor.”

“That’s the kind of heritage that Foley has, especially with its volunteers,” Hinton said. “Back in ‘99 it was that way. We didn’t just try to save the chimney and the well if there was a shot.”

Hinton said 80 percent of FFD’s fires are put out with less than a quarter or half tank of water.

“These guys know what they’re doing. These guys get with it. They don’t just stand around.”

Where 2003 is concerned, Hinton also remembers the fire at First Baptist Church and FFD holding the first structural collapse class in the state.

In 2004 Hinton said FFD began running 24 hour shifts with two firefighters per shift. The department also began doing Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) responses.

“We’ve actually saved a bunch of lives and I’m so proud of that,” Hinton said of the AED responses.

Besides the landfall of Hurricane Ivan that year, FFD logged 1,030 responses.

Hinton remembers these hig points in 2005: $54,000 in grant money to replace breathing apparatus; a $600,000 grant to hire six more firefighters and bring the number per shift to four; and Medals of Honor to firefighters Chad Brewer and Joey Roberts for their efforts in attempting to save the occupants of a submerged vehicle that went into the water on the Foley Beach Express.

A low point of 2005, however, was the death of Hinton’s friend, Rick Sundie. Sundie was 46 when he died at his home on Peachtree Avenue. He was president of MedStar Emergency Services and Hinton had gone to work for him in 1989.

Hinton notes Sundie had donated money for AEDs and actually gave FFD three of the devices for their use.

“He had done so much behind the scenes,” Hinton said of Sundie.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Hinton calls meshing the paid firefighters with the volunteer ones the biggest challenge he has faced as fire chief.

“I tried to hire the paid guys who wouldn’t forget where they came from,” Hinton said.

Officials in other fire departments aren’t forgetting Hinton’s contributions either.

“Foley doesn’t know what they’re losing,” said Robert Wright, assistant fire chief in Loxley, of Hinton’s resignation.

“I learned a lot from Jamie. He’s passed along a lot of information and goes out of his way to help people.”

Wright said Hinton did an extrication class for Loxley firefighters last year.

Steve French, assistant fire chief in Magnolia Springs, calls Hinton a “model firefighter” who “lives it, breathes it, and it comes from the heart.”

Hinton has not only been an asset to FFD, but surrounding fire departments as well, French said.

Hinton’s ability to teach and train, as well as his expertise and experience, have made him respected in the fire community, French said.

“He’s always been willing to share and I can’t say enough about him,” said Gib Hixon, chief at Marlow-Fish River Fire, of Hinton.

“He’s been a mentor to a whole heck of a lot of us. Jamie is the person who taught me in my beginning Firefighter I class.”

Hixon called Hinton’s resignation a “big loss to the fire service.”

On the subject of loss, Hinton mentions a local fire chief and friend of his who lost his job after he got a DUI in a city car while at a fire chief’s conference.

“He really got crucified,” Hinton said.

“It’s true enough that public officials should be held to somewhat of a higher standard, but when you see the things that we see - four dead kids in a wreck, people dying in fires - some of it is so graphic you shouldn’t have to see that as a human being.”

Hinton’s suggestion in that regard: “Cut some people a little slack occasionally.” To that he adds, “Most people really don’t have a clue.”

Hinton said he will continue to be a part of the Foley community. “I love this city,” he said.

“I’ve done what I thought was best for the community through the years.”

He will be going to work for MedStar, doing training for them.

BREWER NAMED INTERIM CHIEF

Lt. Chad Brewer has been named interim chief at Foley Fire Department in light of Chief Jamie Hinton’s resignation effective Jan. 31.

Brewer came to FFD in 2002, according to Hinton, who submitted a letter of resignation to the mayor and council on Jan. 11.

Contacted for comment on Tuesday, Hinton said he was pleased with the city’s appointment of Brewer to fill the interim position.

“I think he will do a fine job,” said Hinton of Brewer, who was the fourth paid firefighter to join FFD.

Mayor John Koniar said Brewer’s appointment as interim chief will be formalized at the city council meeting on Jan. 21.

Asked why the council settled on Brewer for the position, Koniar said Brewer was recommended by Hinton for the interim position.

“He enjoys a great reputation and is a good administrator, and that’s what we’re looking for at this time,” said Koniar of Brewer.