Meet Your Volunteer Firefighter

Heather Clark (MERT) Lt. Ken Clark , FF1/WF2/FBOT –  S.Harley photo

Sheila Harley, Public Information Officer of SJI Fire/Rescue shares this month’s volunteer spotlight…

Heather and Ken are one of several couples who are active in San Juan Island Island Fire & Rescue. Heather is a member of San Jan Island Fire & Rescue’s Major Emergency Response Team (MERT) and Ken is a Lieutenant firefighter, a wildland firefighter and a member of the fire boat team.

They have been married for 21 years and moved here from Los Angeles, California about 11 years ago to raise their children. They had an eight week old baby, McKenna, and a 3 year old daughter, Presley, when they moved to the Island.

Ken has been a Hollywood stuntman for 28 plus years, a job he had really wanted to do since he was very young and he’s still doing it.

Both worked at theme park Knott’s Berry Farm in southern California where they met in 1992. Ken was working as a stuntman there and Heather was an animal trainer ( wolf, bobcat, monkey and more). She has always liked animals and originally wanted to become a veterinarian. She attended 2 years of training at Moorpark College Exotic Animal Training and Management, saying, “It was pretty incredible.”

Ken’s work currently takes him all over the world, traveling quite extensively. Since he started his career he has segued into action directing, and stunt coordinating. He does movies, TV shows, live shows, and just about everything. Just Google “Ken Clark” to find out more about his amazing career. A couple of his favorite movies that he was involved with are “Air Force One” starring Harrison Ford and “ Where the Red Fern Grows”.

Jason Wood, FF1/WF1/FBOT, a fire fighter assigned to Roche Harbor station at the time, talked Ken into joining SJIF&R. Ken felt he could help offer services to those who needed them and has been doing that for 8 or 9 years now. Ken has been assigned to Roche Harbor and Sunset Point stations, but now is assigned to Headquarters and they live within walking distance of the Mullis Street Station. That is why Heather can be on the MERT team for Station 31/Headquarters. A MERT volunteer must be within walking distance of the nearest fire station.

Ken’s view about fire fighting is “its exciting, exhilarating, its an opportunity to do something for the community, and there is a positive social aspect to being a firefighter. A person is surrounded by many other firefighters who enjoy their work for the same reasons. Its a good group of people.”

Its really easy for a young person to be out there and get mixed up with a bad group of people that would lead them down the road to making bad decisions and I don’t think that happens with the Fire Dept. Everyone is headed in a common direction wanting to do good for the community. Our level of training is set up so that firefighters from here have very good training “good enough to be able to set out for bigger fire departments elsewhere. It’s a double edged sword though, because you don’t want people to leave. You want to keep them here in our little district.”

Heather says that this is an amazing place to raise children.

Ken takes every opportunity to talk fire service. He feels that most people don’t know the availability exists for joining the department. Ask questions, come down and meet some of your firefighters that are here and find out how to get involved because we always need more people, whether it is MERT, fire fighting, logistics, FireWise, community education — Heather says that, “you don’t have to be an actual firefighter, but you can join and see what kinds of opportunities there are available to support the department.”

Ken and Heather are involved in our community. They own Xtreme Fitness. They saw a good exercise facility as a need for the Island. It is conducive for firefighters, EMTs, and the Sherrif’s Departments as well. Xtreme Fitness even has an emergency radio for responders to monitor should an emergency develop.

San Juan Island Fire & Rescue welcomes all interested men and women ages 16 years and above to drop by the Mullis Street Station and make an appointment to see what we are all about. Look on line at www.sjifire.org for lots of good information. Or, you could view our Facebook page: San Juan Fire & Rescue. Our phone # is (360) 378-5334. We would be pleased to talk with you.

San Juan Island Fire & Rescue wishes everyone a safe and Happy Halloween!

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