Lodi fire captains Jim Miller, Mike Lair working their final shifts

Lodi Fire Capt. Jim Miller, pictured at Station 3, will be retiring from the department after his last shift Sunday. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

Lodi fire captains Jim Miller, Mike Lair working their final shifts

By Layla Bohm
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Saturday, August 29, 2009 7:14 AM PDT

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Two veteran Lodi fire captains are working their last shifts this week before they retire.

Mike Lair and Jim Miller both accepted early retirement offers from the city, which is trying to save money.

During their combined decades of fire and medical calls, they've seen plenty.

Capt. Jim Miller

As the son of a volunteer Galt fire captain, Jim Miller knew a little about the firefighting profession. A week after graduating from Galt High School in 1971, Miller also became a volunteer firefighter in town that didn't see a large amount of emergency calls.

"My very first fire call, I got to ride a tail board, my dad was my captain and we got to make entry on a full blown fire," he said this week.

Decades later, many things have changed during Miller's firefighting career. Firefighters no longer ride on the outside of fire engines, they have computers inside the trucks, and they don't go into a fire without oxygen masks and tanks.

Now a captain with the Lodi Fire Department, Miller is hanging up his fire hat — the same hat worn by his father. He's accepting an early retirement offer from the city.

"I don't have my head wrapped around it yet," said Miller, who hadn't planned on retiring for another three or four years.

Lodi Fire Capt. Mike Lair retired Friday after 21 years of service in Lodi. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

Miller, 56, doesn't have a concrete plan for what he'll do next, but he does intend to go on some long backpacking trips. He'll also take his niece and nephews fishing.

And he'll keep co-teaching a high school ROP class, which gives students a hands-on idea for future careers. It's something he's been doing since 1990, and Miller has since helped train and then work alongside former ROP students — at a recent house fire, three firefighters on his team were former students.

"I told this year's class, 'You're the first class that I won't have the opportunity to work with,'" Miller said.

Capt. Jim Miller at a glance

Hometown: Born in Lodi; raised in Galt where he still lives.
Age: 56.
Family: Wife, Trina; son, Christopher, age 22.
Hobbies: Hunting, fishing, skiing, backpacking.

Born in Lodi and raised in Galt, Miller started as a volunteer in Galt, then got a job with Woodbridge Rural Fire District while attending San Joaquin Delta College. After nine years he went to work at Goehring Meat, but decided to return to the firefighting world, spending another six years in Woodbridge.

In 1991, Miller took a job with Lodi's fire department. He gradually worked up the ranks and became captain in 2000.

Over the years, Miller has helped out on his share of vehicle accidents, fires and medical calls.

In 1988, while working for Woodbridge Fire, Miller was part of a team sent to battle a massive fire in Yellowstone National Park. Fire engines were shipped on the back of semi-trucks while the firefighters were flown on planes, and they spent a solid week battling the blaze.

The other fire that stands out in Miller's memory is the Darby Fire, near Avery, when he was on a strike team called to help protect threatened structures.

That day was 9/11.

"We watched one of the towers collapse on a little three-by-three black and white portable TV and then went to work and had no idea what was going on," Miller said.

Capt. Mike Lair

As a Tokay High School student, Mike Lair didn't know what he wanted to be when he grew up.

So, when a judge recommended the U.S. Marine Corps, Lair signed up. The military assigned him to firefighting and the rest, as the saying goes, was history.

After four years of firefighting and rescue service around the world, Lair came home in 1980 and got a job as a sign hanger. Then he found a job at Tracy Rural Fire, studied fire science at San Joaquin Delta College and set his sights on the Lodi Fire Department.

Lair got a job in Lodi in 1986, and the city soon became home to him.

Every year, he dons a Santa suit and he and his wife hand out gifts to needy children through Lodi Adopt-A-Child. When a party for 60 children of National Guard soldiers fell through, Lair rallied the community to save the party for the kids, whose parents were in Iraq.

And, of course, there are the actual firefighter duties, too. He's seen countless car wrecks and medical calls, and as a fire investigators he has handled many of the city's big structure fires.

Last fall he was part of a strike team that went to Southern California, driving all night and then immediately heading out to battle monster-sized flames.

Capt. Mike Lair at a glance

Hometown: Born and raised in Stockton; moved to Lodi at start of high school.
Age: 52.
Family: Wife, Kelly; son, Roland, 21 and daughter, Cara, 18. Both children are attending college in Portland, Ore.
Hobbies: Hiking, golfing, playing Santa for local charities.

After 21 years in Lodi, Lair, now 52, had planned to work for at least five more years, until the retirement offer came along.

"I am going to miss the job terribly. I really wasn't ready for (retirement)," he said this week. "They offered the two-year buyout and I continued to crunch numbers and the numbers said to do it. Plus, there was the possibility that four young firefighters were going to get laid off."

Lair already was working part-time in private fire investigation, working fires outside city limits. Now that job will be full-time, though he'll get to work from home. He will respond to fires in Lodi, greater San Joaquin County and the Bay Area, working for insurance companies, manufacturers and attorneys.

Lair half-jokingly said that he has to keep working in order to pay for college for his son and daughter.

"Most of my life I've worked two jobs. Working one job full-time is going to be like vacation," he said with a laugh.

In the meantime, he and his wife are planning to hike the entire Pacific Coast Trail, breaking it into segments over a five-year span. He's climbed Mt. Whitney and Yosemite's Half-Dome, so the experience won't be new to Lair.

The Lairs are avid golfers, so he'll fit in time for that, too.

"And I'll walk my dog," he added.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

jwood wrote on Aug 29, 2009 2:59 PM:

" Gentlemen. It has been an honor and an absolute pleasure to work with you both. I wish you two many happy years of retirement.
Joseph Wood - Community Development Dept. "

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