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.