Stepping away from decades of work as a first responder has a way of prompting a mix of emotion, said Troy Hicklin. It’s bittersweet, he said, but it’s time for some needed rest.
Hicklin’s last day on the job at Riverside Fire Authority was Monday. He’d been with the Centralia department for nine years.
“It’s kind of gotten itself to a point where the firefighting stuff has been my career, that was my love for so many years, but at the same time … it’s kind of time to rest from that,” he said.
Hicklin has a medical transportation business in Cowlitz County — the same county where he lives — and these days he plans on focusing on that business. They serve as something like a medical taxi service, he said, saying they do things like take people to their appointments.
Hicklin became a paramedic in 1990. He was drawn to the adrenaline of the job and the sense of responsibility.