A retirement ceremony was held Monday for Searcy Fire Department Battalion Chief Eddie J. Hollis a week before his final day after 31 years with the department.
Hollis told The Daily Citizen on Friday afternoon that he had two shifts left and will officially start retirement at 7 a.m. Monday when his last shift is over.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Hollis, 62, said about his retirement. “You talk about it for a while and then it’s five years, then three years, one year and then six months. and here it is I got two shifts left.” His biggest enjoyment of his career, he said, has been serving the community and getting to know people all over the state and country and making “good long friendships and lifelong friendships. We have a family atmosphere at the firehouse.”
Over his years of service, Hollis has fought several commercial fires he remembers that were big, but “one of the main ones [about seven years ago] started as a fire and ended up being a hazmat scene.”