After nearly three decades with the Highland Park Fire Department, former Fire Chief Pat Tanner said he sees the town a little differently than most do.
“The funny thing is I can drive around town and I remember fires at certain addresses, bad EMS calls at certain addresses,” said Tanner, 49. “It’s really strange.”
On Tuesday, Tanner was sworn in as the new fire chief for the West Chicago Fire Protection District, ending a run in Highland Park that began when he was first hired at age 19 in 1985. Tanner said he was looking forward to a change of scenery and the new challenges the job would bring, but said he was grateful to have spent the last 29 years in Highland Park.
“I believe leaders who are in their positions for too long can make a place stagnant,” Tanner said. “I don’t think that’s happened here. But I also wanted to leave at the top of my game.”
New Fire Chief Dan Pease, who’s been with the city’s fire department for 28 years, took over on Tuesday. Pease will make an annual salary of $135,000 in his new post.
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For Pease, 49, the promotion represents a dream attained.
“I’m very excited,” Pease said in a recent interview. “Over the years, I’ve risen up through the ranks and I’m finally reaching the pinnacle of my career.”
Tanner said it had been a professional goal to move on from Highland Park after 30 years, when his pension maxes out. He almost made it — next July would have been 30 years — but the opportunity at the West Chicago fire district presented itself first, Tanner said.
“I was really fortunate that I knew what my career goals were,” Tanner said. “It allowed me to mentor (Pease) for the last two years.”
The chief spoke highly of his successor and said they had similar leadership styles. Like him, Tanner said Pease had a “very calm” demeanor and thinks through challenges before reacting.
“He’s going to do a phenomenal job,” Tanner said.
Reminiscing about his tenure in Highland Park, Tanner reflected on some of his early experiences as a firefighter, such as responding to calls nearly every weekend at the intersection of Clavey Road and U.S. 41. In his first few years on the job, that intersection had traffic signals instead of an overpass, he said, and highway drivers often didn’t expect the stoplight.
As a result, the fire department responded to “hellacious crashes.”
“As soon as you got the call, the hair on the back of your neck would stand up,” said Tanner, a Waukegan native who grew up in Gurnee.
In his new job, Tanner will learn a completely different coverage area in DuPage County. The West Chicago fire district covers about 26 square miles, Tanner said, about double the area of Highland Park.
But Highland Park has more calls for service, Tanner said, with about 4,500 per year compared with 2,800 calls per year for the West Chicago fire district.
“It’s basically about the same concentration of people over a larger area,” Tanner said.
Tanner, father of three adult sons, said he and his wife, Joni, likely would move to DuPage County from their home in Antioch, where they’ve lived for about 14 years.
Pease, born and raised in Glenview, is one of six brothers. Four of them, including Pease, are officers in suburban fire departments, he said. The other two are business owners.
Pease and his wife, Eileen, have five daughters and two sons, ranging in age from 19 to 27.
He began his work as chief Tuesday.