The last thing a firefighter needs is to worry about arriving on scene safely.
That’s where Wayne Tuttle comes in.
As lead mechanic for the Spokane Valley Fire Department, he has spent the past 15 years making sure fire trucks are ready to get the job done.
Tuttle was about to start a job working long hours on the Coeur d’Alene River when he saw the fire department mechanic job in the newspaper.
Tuttle thought, “That’s as much as I’m making now, and I can be home every night.”
So he took the job and never looked back.
“I really feel blessed to get this job, and I’ve been happy here,” Tuttle said.
After about a year on the job, Tuttle became a volunteer firefighter.
“You see the guys training out here and you think, ‘Oh, that looks kind of interesting,’ ” Tuttle said.
Tuttle serves as the captain of a fire station in Rockford and a commissioner for Spokane County Fire District 11.