GULF SHORES, Ala. — The Gulf Shores Fire and Rescue continues to hire within as Keith Martin has been promoted to deputy fire chief.

The position, left absent when Fire Chief Hartly Brokenshaw stepped up, was being filled by Martin on an interim position.

This month he was announced as the permanent deputy fire chief.

“It’s a cliché, but it’s something I always wanted to do,” Martin said when asked why he wanted to be a fireman. “As soon as I was old enough I joined the volunteer fire department.”

Since he was 18, Martin has been serving his communities as a firefighter. He started in a junior program as a volunteer in Tarrant, a northern Alabama city.

“The more I was around it the more I realized how much I wanted to do it,” Martin said. “There’s so much involved with the fire service.”

He said it’s not just about fire. Firefighters respond to medical calls, car accidents and even animal rescue.

“If there is something wrong, no matter what, they call the fire department, unless it’s criminal,” Martin said.

The excitement and ever-changing experiences drew Martin to the field. He said the calls are never the same and every shift is different.

While volunteering in Tarrant, he trained to be a paramedic and began work with an ambulance service. Shortly after, he got his first paid job with the fire department in Birmingham. He worked for six years with the Birmingham Fire Department before moving to the Helena Fire Department.

There, he served as a firefighter/medic under now Orange Beach Fire Chief Forney Howard and began the Firefighter Explorer Post, a program aimed to encourage high school students to become firefighters.

“It introduces them to fire service and it’s like a junior firefighter program,” Martin said.

He hopes to develop a post here, too. Helena is also where Martin found his love for fire prevention. Brokenshaw said Martin was an obvious choice for the deputy fire chief position and his time serving as the interim showed he was right for the job. He will leave behind the fire marshal title to step up.

Martin started with Gulf Shores in June 2004, just a few months before Hurricane Ivan.

“I was horrified,” Martin said of riding the storm out in Station One. “It was a shocking experience.”

He said now he is a hurricane veteran who stays to work after the storm and sends his wife Christi up north. While the life of a firefighter leads to crazy and unusual happenings, Martin said it is the lives that have been saved he thinks of most.

“We’ve got some of the best staff working here and have had several saves,” Martin said. “There’s quite a few saves walking around town.”

Martin will still serve as fire marshal until the position can be filled.