Seven years ago, the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department opened a facility so impressive that one city council member termed it “the mother of all fire stations in the area.” Wednesday, the department named it in honor of a trailblazer from its own ranks.
Since opening, the new station in the Crichton area has been the subject of pride. In 2018, it was where department and city leaders chose to reveal that the MFRD had achieved a top-tier ISO 1 rating.
It now bears the name of Alexander G. Trenier, who spent nearly 40 years in the department and became one of its first Black district chiefs. Trenier, who rose to the rank of deputy chief, died in February.
On Wednesday he was praised not just for 40 years of service but for his engagement with the community, particularly his work as a mentor at the Dumas Wesley Community Center. Mayor Sandy Stimpson traced the Trenier family’s history of service all the way back to Creole Fire Company No. 1, an organization that was active as far back as the early 19th century, predating the formation of a city fire department, and one whose downtown home remains a historic landmark.
