This week's Someone 2 Know is one of the brave few who run toward burning buildings and wildfires, while the rest of us run to safety. Just this month (Jan.2021), he retired from Truckee Meadows Fire & Rescue after spending a lifetime devoted to serving northern Nevada.
Meet Mike Heikka
We caught up with him, at his home away from home, Station 45 in Sun Valley. Heikka closes the door on his specially designated battalion-chief pickup truck, and on a three-decade long dedication to firefighting.
"I started my career in 1987 as a seasonal firefighter for the Nevada Division of Forestry,” he shares, and remembers thinking 2021 seemed impossibly far away.
Northern Nevada's Mike Heikka has been a career firefighter for 33 years, moving up the ranks and riding out all the jurisdictional changes.
"We became Sierra Fire Protection District and then in 2012, we became Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District (now Truckee Meadows Fire & Rescue), so I've been a battalion chief for 15 years now."
Through the years Mike has seen technology really improve their firefighting abilities.
"Especially on a wildland fire, we have better maps, we have you know GPS system to give us coordinates, so we know where the people are, it's better for the aircraft."
But the human element is still key, says Heikka - firefighters are the ones to put water on a blaze, like the huge pallet fire that illuminated the skies near the Reno-Stead Airport in 2019.
Just one among so many.
"As I drive around the area, you know, because I spent most of my career in Washoe County, there's really not very many places that I haven't had a fire."
Some places bring back somber memories, like the wind-driven blaze that tore through Caughlin Ranch in 2011.
"You know, the area that I had there were numerous houses that were destroyed by that fire and that was pretty difficult."
And through it all, leading his teams, Heikka has saved immeasurably more homes and more wildland than he's lost, all while putting himself in harm's way. The hard work, devotion and camaraderie have not gone unnoticed.
Recently Mike was honored by the Washoe County Commissioners - and his fellow firefighters made sure he had a proper sendoff (masked and socially distanced, but no less heartfelt).
"They're some of the best firefighters around and they just need to get back to normal and they can be fire fighters and do what they love."
Now that he's officially off the clock, Mike is spending time with his love - his wife, who along with their Jack Russell Terrier will continue to explore the Nevada desert.
