Buness marks 25 years as Wrangell fire chief

Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department Chief Tim Buness celebrated his 25th year on the job with cupcakes and congratulations earlier this month.

Buness is the second consecutive fire chief with that name to hold the post. His father served for 25 years as chief before him, and before that, his next-door neighbor served in the post. Buness – who also works as an electrician – manages the department's 35 volunteer personnel and one full-time administrator on a part-time basis, and was born and raised in Wrangell. He has roots not just in the town, but in the department, stretching back to at least 1969.

Among his biggest accomplishments has been the construction of a substation at about 5 1/2 Mile Zimvoia Highway in the early 1990s, extending the department's reach down the road.

"That station's had a lot of calls that its responded to," he said.

He's also maintained the department's professional rating with the International Standards Organization, and equipment employed by the department. The department has ranked higher than all but 1300 other departments among the 46,000 departments throughout the nation in the ratings system employed by the ISO, Buness said.

Buness credits his own accomplishments to smooth transitions in department leadership.

"As other fire departments - both in Southeast and the state - go through their transitions, I don't think they end up with that continuity," he said. "That's why Wrangell is such an awesome place to work."

Wrangell fire fighters make the personnel aspects of the job easy, Buness said.

"It's all relatively easy as far as the personnel goes, because it's just a great group to work with," he said. "I've had excellent help in the office. Between those two personnel it makes it fairly easy."

However, having great support and personnel doesn't make showing up at the scene of large fires, like the Ottesen's lumberyard fire about eight years ago, any easier, Buness said.

"The most stressful part of it is the actual call, making sure that nobody gets hurt and everybody gets to go home," he said.

The department has managed to avoid serious injury to personnel in his tenure.

"We've had some minor injuries, but no broken bones or anything like that," he said. "Knock on wood, it's been good."

Buness said he has no plans to retire anytime soon.

"I truly enjoy the job that I do," Buness said.

"I also have a daughter in college still, so that's driving that," he added jokingly.