Neil Svetanics, former chief of the St. Louis Fire Department and the Lemay Fire Protection District, died Wednesday (June 7, 2017) after a brief lung illness. He was 77 and lived in St. Louis Hills.
Mr. Svetanics joined the St. Louis Fire Department in 1962 and moved up in ranks, serving as chief from 1986 to 1999. He returned to the profession three years later, when he was hired as the Lemay chief. He retired from there in 2014, saying he planned to travel and spend more time with his family, and had plans to “stay retired.”
“Though you know, I wish I was young enough to do it all over again,” he said at the time.
Just last year, he expressed a longing for the fire service. Asked at a ceremony at a firefighters monument at Bellefontaine Cemetery whether he ever missed being on duty, Mr. Svetanics said, “Every day, every single day.”