When Ed Carolan was in high school, he worked a few odd jobs after school, but he didn’t have any real direction.
His mother suggested the military, but he rejected that idea.
“Why would I want to have short hair and wear a uniform?” he said about his thoughts at the time.
Carolan’s mother then suggested firefighting after meeting and getting to know a number of the firefighters from the station located across the street from the grocery store where she was working at the time.
Carolan — who was born in Davenport, Iowa and moved to the Pacific Northwest in the mid 1960s when his father took a job with Boeing — looked into a fire-training program in Tacoma and decided to give it a try.
“Here I was, sitting in the classroom with short hair and wearing a uniform,” he said with a laugh.
ALMOST FOUR DECADES OF SERVICE
That was in 1975 and his objections to short hair and uniforms must not have been too strong as he recently retired from an almost four-decade-long career with the Redmond Fire Department (RFD).
Carolan, 58, said he found the regimented leadership structure of the training — which was similar to how an actual fire department would be run — appealing.
“I like that kind of structure,” he said.
When he completed his training, he would take tests to get into fire departments all over the region — although he wanted to stay in the Puget Sound area and close to his family (he is second in a line of seven siblings).
At that time, the fire departments in Redmond, Kirkland and Bothell were offering a joint test and when he took it, Carolan said the potential hires were asked to name their preferred city. He had visited the three departments and said Redmond appealed to him the most.
Carolan joined the RFD in September 1976.
During his 38 and a half years of service with RFD, Carolan worked his way up to battalion chief, a position he had held since 1986 until he retired on March 13. Prior to this, he worked as a driver and a lieutenant.
A REWARDING CAREER
Carolan said one of the things he enjoyed about fire service was the instant reward firefighters received from their work as they know right then and there if they do something right.
He also liked that firefighting is a team effort and that everyone has a job to do.
“It’s really exciting,” he said, adding, “I’ll miss the teamwork. I’ll miss the adrenaline of going out and being challenged.”
For Carolan working at RFD for nearly four decades has lent itself to many memories. He has seen new fire stations open around town as well as rookies he had worked with in their early days move up the ranks.
Carolan also remembers working with other jurisdictions and taking the lead to plan and organize emergency response plans for the PGA Championship when it was held at the Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish in 1998. He said on the second day of the golf tournament, somebody went into cardiac arrest and it only took two minutes for a team of first responders to reach the individual to transport them to the hospital. He said while he was not on that call, he played a big role as he helped plan for such an event.
“I felt some ownership,” he said.
But not all of his memories are happy.
Carolan said being a firefighter can be an emotional task. And one instance of this occurred in 2011 when an apartment fire on New Year’s Day claimed the lives of five people. Carolan was the incident commander on that call.
PERSONAL CONNECTIONS
Carolan will also remember all of the friends he has made during his time at the department and now that he is retired, Carolan said he will miss them — though he said he will not be leaving the department for good.
“I’ll never not be part of the Redmond Fire Department,” Carolan said. “I will always have that connection.”
The feeling is mutual.
“Chief Carolan will truly be missed by the City of Redmond,” said Redmond Fire Chief Tommy Smith. “He has served the citizens of Redmond selflessly for over 38 years. Chief Carolan came to work every day with the same level of dedication as he did in his early years with the department. Nearly four decades of service did not diminish his passion for the people he worked with or those that he served. Chief Carolan is an inspiration to us all and we wish Ed and his family the very best in retirement.”
Fire Capt. Jeff Smith agreed, saying Carolan always gave 100 percent and didn’t slow down as the finish line approached.
“A classic example of modeling the expected conduct,” Jeff said.
After his final shift, Carolan said he was able to say he completed his career without any deaths of the firefighters working under him or any of them sustaining a career-ending injury. He said out of all the things he accomplished during his time at RFD, he is most proud of that fact as these were his brothers and sisters in fire service and he was responsible for them.
TRAVEL, GRANDKIDS AND REGULAR SLEEP
Now that he is retired, Carolan said he and his wife will move to a home they had built in Grand Coulee in eastern Washington and do some traveling. Retirement will also give Carolan a chance to be a full-time grandfather to his three grandchildren.
Another thing Carolan has planned for in his retirement is settling into a more regular sleep pattern as he has spent most of his life sleeping is short shifts and going on calls at all times of the day and night.
“I will not miss getting up multiple times in the night,” he said with a laugh.
