When Dan DeLongchamp joined Independence Township Fire Department in 1974 right out of high school, his parents figured it was something he wanted to get out of his system.
“Dad told my mom I just needed to get the sirens and lights out of my head,” DeLongchamp said. “Now, I’m over it.”
Fellow firefighters’ union members hosted a retirement party, Feb. 26 at Fountains Golf and Banquet Center, to celebrate his 35 years of service.
“I think it’s great ? he worked hard his entire career,” said Lt. Chris Norberg, who worked with DeLongchamp for about 12 years. “He’s going to be missed. We all looked up to Dan ? he taught us a lot.”
“Dan has always been a very devoted employee, always happy-go-lucky,” said Chief Steve Ronk, who joined the department at the same time as DeLongchamp. “I’m glad he has time to pursue some interests in his retirement.”
DeLongchamp, a graduate of Clarkston High School, was hired fulltime in 1977, and qualified in EMS, hazmat, and extrication, and retired as captain of shift two.
“It was a good career ? I wouldn’t change anything,” he said. “I love serving people. I was a hometown fireman, a dream come true.”
The township changed a lot since he started, but not as much as firefighters sometimes joke, especially when they ask him what it was like to have to “feed the horses.”
The department had trucks, though with stick-shift transmissions.
“Equipment is much more sophisticated now,” he said.
The department responded to about one call a day in the 1970s. Now, up to 20 calls come in one day, he said.
“Lots of medical runs, many accidents on I-75,” he said. “The growth of township meant fewer grassfires ? now they’re subdivisions.”
Firefighters will miss DeLongchamp’s big, booming laugh the most, Norberg said.
“That’s what stands out the most,” he said. “He fun, but serious when he has to be serious. We’ve been through some heavy stuff, and he would make it easier. We all appreciated that.”
He still works parttime as an emergency room technician with Doctors Hospital, but plans to spend much more time on Silver Lake, where he and his wife, Michele, have a pontoon boat, with his daughter Nicole, her husband, Jon, and their baby, Lilly.
“I’m happy ? now I have more time to be a grandpa,” Dan said.
“I love it. It’s like we’re newlyweds again,” Michele said.