Chief has unfortunate attraction to deer

Kalispell Fire Marshal D.C. Haas handed two index cards of "Helpful Interview Questions' to a reporter arriving to do a profile on Acting Fire Chief Dan Diehl.

Four of the questions were:

n How many chickens do you have?

n Do you have any experience with aerial fireworks?

n What is your career total for hitting deer?

n What's in your coffee?

Diehl, 48, has been Kalispell's acting fire chief since March 2008 when then-Chief Randy Brodehl went on indefinite leave that ended with a terse, close-mouthed retirement in July 2008. Brodehl had strained relations with some surrounding rural fire districts and with his own firefighters.

The search for Brodehl's replacement is on indefinite hold.

Interim City Manager Myrt Webb said that the earliest the search might be revived is when a new city manager is hired to replaced Jim Patrick, who was terminated last October. City manager finalist interviews are Friday.

As acting chief, Diehl worries about making major changes because they could undermine plans that a future permanent chief might have.

"We do need to move on with a permanent person in the position," he said - a position Diehl is interested in applying for.

"We have moved forward [from past internal tensions' and I've been very impressed with the union and the communication levels that we have built in the last year," Diehl said.

Diehl believes several improvements can be made to the fire department.

The highest-profile problem is personnel.

The fire department currently is 12 people below its authorized strength of 43 firefighter/paramedics. New hires are unlikely in the near future because of the city's budget crunch.

The day that Diehl was interviewed, only eight firefighter/paramedics were on shift. That's enough to operate three trucks or ambulances. That put Kalispell on the brink of asking the Evergreen Fire Department for help if more than two or three calls occurred close together.

Diehl wants to see 12 firefighters on duty each shift, which means the department actually would need 14 available per shift because there always are some people in schools or on vacation.

The acting chief also worries about improving training resources.

The north-side's fire station's tower is good enough for individual training, but the department lacks resources and sometimes time to do unit-oriented training, Diehl said. The department could use access to a "burn room," in which firefighters can practice extinguishing flames over and over as a team.

Next month, Diehl hopes to start fire-prevention inspections of downtown businesses, hoping eventually to go to every business in Kalispell.

He sees fire prevention as a major department weakness since budget shortfalls resulted in shifting fire-prevention people to the response crews.

He also sees the inspection visits as a way to build better face-to-face relations with citizens.

Diehl grew up in Hot Springs and Plains, graduating from Montana State University before becoming an accountant for the federal government.

Lured by Alaska, he and his wife, Jennifer, moved to Anchorage, where he worked as a federal accountant with a hankering to join either the police or fire departments.

He applied to both, and the police hired him first. But after 10 months as a cop, Diehl decided he was not temperamentally suited for police work and transferred to the fire department.

There, he stayed for 17 years, rising to captain before retiring. He then spent a year in the state fire marshal's office.

He fell in love with the fire-house camaraderie, the public-service aspects and, for a while, the adrenaline boosts of responding to calls.

Late-night calls became less enticing as he got older.

A combination of his parents' health and raising three children - Carly, 13, Courtney 13, and Collin, 9 - prompted the family to return to Western Montana in 2002. The couple also has a grown son, Ryan, 24.

In 2005, a slot for assistant operations chief at the Kalispell Fire Department opened. The job intrigued Diehl and friends encouraged him to apply.

Here are the answers to four of the questions provided by Haas:

n The Diehls have 15 chickens in their laundry room because Jennifer is an organic gardener. One of Diehl's to-do-list tasks is to build a chicken hutch.

n In suburban Anchorage in the early 1990s, Diehl gave in to little Ryan's badgering to buy a "helicopter" fireworks rocket.

They set it off in their yard. The wind took the fireworks to the top of a neighbor's house, where it burned a hole in the roof.

Diehl grabbed a ladder and a lawn hose - and ran over with the hose being stretched to its limit. Ryan "was shocked. He never saw Dad move so fast,"

Diehl put out the roof fire and then repaired the damage.

n Diehl's deer tally in the past month is two hits and four close misses.

The first hit came when a deer leaped in front of the chief's official vehicle as it headed to Glacier Park International Airport to pick up the department's new ladder truck.

After the vehicle was fixed, Diehl was driving to Helena when he saw a deer ahead of him and slowed to 10 mph. The deer tried to leap across the vehicle's front, but didn't make it.

Four other close calls occurred while Diehl was driving.

"Deer and me, right now, they have an attraction to my vehicle."

n Diehl is a hard-core morning person.

He shows up early every day at the main fire station. He usually hums. Or sings. Most of the time, the music isn't a real tune.

He likes his coffee strong as he chats with firefighters, seeing that as quality time with his people.

A running joke is that something is adding extra oomph his coffee.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com