Duluth Fire Department Experiences Historic One Day Number of Retirees

Including Asst. Chief Clint Reff and Fire Marshal Sandy McComb, a combined 256 years of service left the Department Thursday.

DULUTH, Minn.- The end of the year 2021 seeing the retirement of 12 personnel on the Duluth Fire Department – leaving with a combined 256 years of service under their belts.

Many of the retirees have worn hats other than firefighter, like Fire Marshal Sandy McComb.

Retiring after 24 years, she’s been in charge of car seat clinics for about 20 years. “I was, happened to be on light duty at the time pregnant with my daughter so I learned a bunch about car seats,” said McComb.

And she learned how important it is to help parents feel secure, knowing their kids are secure.

“It’s been a great job and this part of it has also been really rewarding seeing the parents that are thankful and appreciative as they come in and they’re learning things and they’re like, ‘oh I didn’t know about that’ or ‘how do I do this,” she said.

“And they go out feeling good about what they’ve learned and how their car seats installed,” McComb said.

McComb says she’s happy the program is going strong, with the first clinic of 2022 happening on January 20th.

Meanwhile, after 25 years of responding to the Northland’s emergencies Assistant Chief Clint Reff, the highest-ranking African heritage firefighter Duluth has ever had, said goodbye Thursday.

“After a little more than 25 years it’s been a blast, a great career and it’s time to move on,” said Reff. “It’s time to move on let some younger guys do this job.”

The bigger fires he’s been on the rig for will stick with him the most. “The opportunity to make an impact on people’s lives on what’s presumably for them one of the worst days of their life is kind of a good feeling.”

“That was something that’s kind of a little bittersweet,” he said. “That it’s great that you were involved in that and get to have a chance to try to make a difference, on the other hand, you’re at every one of those.”

And to his successor, Reff says the best advice he can give is to trust heavily in the good work Duluth Fire crews have done and will continue to do.

“You just have to be strong enough and confident enough in yourself to get out of their way,” he said.

A spokesperson with the fire department says they’re in the process of hiring 14 people right now, with recruits starting in January.