‘Making bad situations better’

It’s been 32 years since Vestavia Hills Fire Chief Jim St. John walked into a Birmingham fire station and asked how to get a job as a firefighter.

In the time since, St. John has been with the city of Vestavia through large structural fires, tornadoes, a plane crash and thousands of emergency calls.

“Firefighters tend to see people on their worst days, and so I’ve gotten a lot of personal satisfaction from being able to help people out on those days, and to leave things in better shape than we found them,” he said.

It was the department’s focus on training and preparedness that he said drew him to Vestavia, as well as the desire to stay near where he grew up.

“This was my home community, and I wanted to be able to serve around the people I had known for my whole life,” he said.

In his time with VHFD, St. John said he has held nearly every position in the department, trying to learn from the big events to better serve in the smaller ones.

“You gain lessons from [major events] that you can apply the next time you roll out of the door,” he said.

St. John was promoted to chief in 2008, after Butch Zaragoza stepped into the mayor’s seat. At the end of April, the chief officially retired from the fire service to take a job with the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency.

“I’ve never regretted going into the fire service; it’s always been just a great fit for me. It’s matched my personality, or I’ve matched its personality. I like serving; I like being involved in making bad situations better,” he said. “I’m comfortable moving into another role where I can serve in public safety.”

St. John will step into the role of emergency operations officer with the EMA and will be tasked with helping plan for emergency management and training first responders and the community for emergency situations.

“Emergency management is a bit of science and a bit of art,” he said, but the job will have some of the same aspects as what he does now.

To St. John, 32 years at the same discipline is a long time. He said he also once received some sage advice from an old sailor who told him to always leave on a crest, rather than in a trough.

“I think that this city, this community and this department are on a crest, and I’m glad that I could help to get the department situated up on that crest, but I’ll continue to enjoy serving and applying that knowledge in a more technical aspect,” he said.

But residents of Vestavia Hills and those passing through need not worry about the quality of the fire department.

“There’s a number of people in this department that are supremely qualified to be able to run this department,” he said.

In the last four years alone, he said, his team has taken the department from an 87 percent satisfaction rating to 98 percent, and he puts that credit squarely on the shoulders of those who work under him.

“This department is full of talent; this department is going to continue to operate smoothly and providing the services the public expects and desires and they’re going to be delivered at a high level that people appreciate. I am confident of that,” he said.