SEASIDE – It’s the end of an era. The end of Seaside Fire Chief Joe Dotson’s 27 years of service to the fire department. He will no longer supervise firefighting and medical situations, teach fire skills or hand out awards and certifications.

He won’t make firefighters in an ambulance stop at his house to get him a clean shirt, prance around in Lt. Susan Agalzoff’s tiny boots for a joke, announce over the radio “Can you dispatch the police, we need help to break in this guy’s car” or mis-hear alert tones and try to send firefighters on a Medix call.

Dotson, 61, will retire next week.

At the 2006 Seaside firefighters’ awards banquet Saturday, Dotson’s people “roasted” him with tales of his idiosyncrasies, but mentioned his good points too. “He’s a good man,” firefighter John Mercer said before the banquet. “He’s the kind of guy you go into a fire with and you feel good about it.”

Dotson received a standing ovation, a watch, a brass-plated ax and one last salute from his firefighters. “You have no idea how honored I am,” Dotson said, choked with emotion. “I just can’t tell you how proud I am to have served you and the city of Seaside.”

The firefighters spoke of how much Dotson had taught them and said they would miss him. “We want to honor our friend, our brother, our father, our chief,” Lt. Lee Smith said.

“He cares deeply about everyone in the community and all of his firefighters,” Cannon Beach Fire Chief Cleve Rooper said.

Mark Agalzoff from the city said Dotson is very knowledgeable about safety and always had time to listen, even if he didn’t always tell the city about firefighter driving accidents. “He always made sure that none of you looked bad,” Agalzoff said.

“These guys put their lives on the line all the time, and our city’s extremely lucky to have him,” Dotson’s secretary, or “Office Goddess,” Karna Cupples said.

Dotson said outside the banquet that he moved to Seaside at 14, and when he walked into class, Verna Jones told a friend, “I’m going to marry that guy someday.” It didn’t happen right away. He was at home on leave from the U.S. Navy when they fell in love. “We got together and got married seven days later,” Dotson said.

Dotson worked as a logger for Crown Zellerbach after serving in the Vietnam War. He joined the fire department, and was excited by saving lives and property. “It was a chance to give back to society,” he said. So he applied himself to the training, while logging and working part-time for Medix. He spent seven years in night school and took a “whole pile” of weekend classes.

“My family suffered a lot,” he admitted. “But it all paid off.” Verna Dotson has been very understanding, but will require him to put her first after retirement. He has had to leave many Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, because that is what firefighters do. When he is called out at night, she lies awake listening to the scanner, hoping he is all right.

Two of his sons followed him into firefighting, and his grandson Gregory Dotson, who is in middle school, washes fire trucks a few days a week. His grandfather hopes there will be another generation of firefighting Dotsons.

He has responded to a fire in a metal building with lots of flammables inside, car fatalities he said were “gory,” three fire fatalities, two of them in December 2006 and about a dozen infant fatalities from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. “SIDS is the hardest part,” he said. “Infant deaths are just trouble, they tear me up. Infants are so innocent, they really haven’t done anything to deserve that.”

A fire that killed a 4-year-old was hard, too. Dotson spent three days in the building doing the fire investigation, and had to look at the outline of the child’s body on the floor. But he said the difficult incidents are what he trained for.

He said proudly there have only been three firefighter injuries during his time as chief, and all were minor. He was the county Emergency Medical Services Provider of the Year for two years in a row.

One of his more memorable jobs was delivering a baby when a woman gave birth quickly, and reporting over the radio, “Be advised, we now have two patients.” He had taught childbirth to emergency responders, but never wanted to deliver a baby, “‘Cause I really don’t like childbirth.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” he said. “She wasn’t so happy.”

Dotson said the City Council, Mayor Don Larson and City Manager Mark Winstanley have always been supportive. “We’ve always gotten pretty much everything we needed.” He thanked citizen supporters and taxpayers.

He will miss the camaraderie of his volunteer firefighters. “Like all fire chiefs, I think I have the best fire department in the world,” he said. “But I’m sure I’m right.”

His favorite part has been teaching younger firefighters, and he enjoys seeing their excitement as they exit a building after putting out a fire. Many firefighters find fire thrilling, but Dotson said he does not enjoy seeing someone’s house burn up. He likes seeing a fire go out. “I love putting wet stuff on red stuff.”

There was a time when chimney fires were the worst problem, but now it is candle fires. “I’ve seen more fires related to candles than from any other cause I can think of.”

He no longer finds speed and sirens exciting, but has enjoyed emergency medical response, and being part of a team with a common goal to save lives. He knows people in the community who would probably be dead if not for emergency responders.

“My dream was to succeed at something in life.” Fire chief has qualified, Dotson said. “I had accomplished something that my family could be proud of.”

Now he is ready to relax, play tourist in an RV and lose the pager that has ruled his life for so long. “I’m looking forward to sleeping all-l-l-l night.” He said the department has changed greatly, with many more rules, regulations, paperwork and training requirements. “It’s time for old guys to give it to newer guys.”

Dotson believes he will manage to stay away from the fire department, and his firefighters will be fine without him. He will probably listen to the scanner at first, “but after a while I’ll turn it off.”

His firefighters may get the last word, though. One firefighter threatened at the banquet to drive past his house at 3 a.m. and hit the siren.

At the banquet, Mark Burke was given the safety award for constantly looking for ways to improve safety. Capt. Don Beck was awarded for responding to the most calls, and Tyler Johnson for attending the most drills.

Ex-fire chief Glen Bard was awarded for 45 years with the department, while assistant chiefs Joe Sopko and Eric Schmidt were awarded for 25, captains Mike Smith and Tony Biamont for 15, Agalzoff for 10 and Burke, Stephen Parker, Gordon Houston, Matthew Hofman and Aaron Hartman for five.

The EMS Provider of the Year award went to Lt. Colin Houston, while Agalzoff received Officer of the Year and Brooke Novion got Firefighter of the Year.

Nick Kaim, 11, who comes over to wash trucks and has attracted several young people to help, was given a red Seaside Fire jacket, badge and nametag to go with his uniform shirt.

Gag awards were given to firefighters for such sins as standing on the top step of a ladder using a chain saw, using a fire hose in a water fight during training, “hickish” talk on the radio, pulling out a fire truck without shutting the door and bending the door backward, sitting on a hose while it was being charged with water and hanging on as it flew about, driving into the wrong bay and falling for Biamont’s spiking cereal with garlic powder.