SPRING CITY—Spring City Fire Chief Clarke Christensen retired recently after five years of service as chief and after over 40 years of public service in Orem and Spring City.
To celebrate his years of service his wife, Francine Christensen, organized a surprise dinner with family, friends and crew members. Almost 50 people were in attendance to celebrate, including the Spring City mayor, Chris Anderson.
Christensen has been the fire chief since 2017, starting out with minimal crew and equipment. When he arrived, the crew consisted of three volunteers, none of them trained or certified in structure fires.
In his time there, he brought the three person crew up to 11, training and certifying them in Structure 1 and 2 fires.
The department currently has 28 members certified in wildland fires, three in hazmat, 12 wilderness first responders and 12 who are certified EMTs or in the process of getting certified.
Christensen began his career as a police officer in Orem in 1978. While he was working as a police officer, the department was cross training with the fire department. When opportunities arose, they worked together, fighting fires or even on tasks as simple as writing tickets.
He worked in Orem for over 30 years before coming to Spring City to work as the police chief. Upon seeing the state of the fire department, he knew what he had to do.
When Christensen first arrived, the equipment was unmaintained and nonfunctional. After taking over, he has been sure that all equipment is functional and ready in case of any type of emergency.
“Just on behalf of the city, I just want to add my thanks and congratulations to Clarke for the great work he’s done,” Anderson said. “We hope we can maintain the legacy with these great people we have on the depmartment.”