North Whatcom Fire and Rescue Service will say farewell to one of its own at the end of this month.
After 27 years of service, division chief Henry Hollander will retire on May 31, and he can’t wait to hear the sweet sound of silence.
Sitting at his desk at Station 63 in mid-May, the sharp tune of his pager breaks through conversation.
“That’s what wakes you up at night,” chief Hollander said, pointing to the pager. “There are weeks when you get woken up every night, often twice a night. My phone goes day and night, seven days a week because of all the different aspects of work that I’m affiliated with in the department.”
Chief Hollander’s tall frame is bursting with jokes, stories of the many lives he’s lived and the winding paths that brought him to firefighting, his second career.