Chip Timmons joined the Galesburg Fire Department March 11, 1990. Twenty six years and one day later, he will be retiring as Battalion Chief from a career he loves.
“I’m not a real analytical guy,” he says. “I just know it’s time to go and as the day gets closer, I made the right move.”
The 55-year-old fireman says he’s seen his share of fires — some tragic, others that gave him and his fellow firefighters the chance to be heroes — but what he’ll miss most of all are his friends in the GFD.
“I’m not a big social animal, but I can tell you when you work with a group of guys, you form quite an emotional bond,” he says, struggling with the words. “I’m gonna miss the guys.”
Moving forward, he says he plans to continue working with his family business, Jet Air, a company that does everything from air-ambulance transportation to aircraft maintenance.
Timmons, who has been been flying professionally since he was 18, says piloting a plane isn’t so different from fighting fires: on top of the need to keep your cool, leave yourself an out and be ever present, he says both scenarios are “a blast.”
Saturday marks Timmons’s last day on the force.
