Michael Heston, chief of the Pullman fire department, enjoys cooking in his crock pot, bass fishing, working with local Cub Scout troops and ensuring the community is safe.

Throughout Heston’s career, he’s helped local area programs grow by helping develop testing services, a residency program for Pullman Fire Department, and training programs.

His duties as fire chief include overseeing day-to-day operations, ensuring the community is using the most cost effective ways to ensure safety, promoting the station, and taking care of the budget, Heston said.

The responsibilities of his position also include support for the fire department staff and teaching them leadership skills.

“We’re trying to build leadership skills because they’re the leaders of tomorrow,” Heston said.

Heston plays the role of a community member by helping others and getting in touch with members by attending senior luncheons, having coffee with people over at the Whitman Senior Living community, or helping his wife Debbie Heston set up for Cougar football games, Heston said.

The type of community service Heston encourages staff to participate in is expressed in a call he remembers. In this case, an elderly woman was gardening outside and fell, injuring herself and needing to be taken to the hospital.

In order to make sure she felt better, the staff put away her tools and finished planting some plants for her, Heston said.

Pullman fire helps citizens as long as it doesn’t take them away from their fire and medical duties by doing things like shoveling their sidewalks during the winter, Heston said.

“If we see you stranded on the side of the road, it’s not a fire or medical issue,” Heston said. “It’s a people issue.”

Heston goes above and beyond to ensure his staff is healthy and well by being there for them during hard times.

Erik Taylor, fire fighter and EMT with the Pullman Fire Department, recalled a time when he was very sick and hospitalized and during his first day was in and out of consciousness, but when he finally woke up he found Heston sitting in his hospital room.

“I didn’t tell anyone I was sick,” Taylor said. “I felt taken care of.”

Taylor said because Heston was highly involved with WSU since attending classes as a student as bridges a gap between WSU and Pullman’s fire departments.

Another staff member, Brenda Davison, administrative specialist for Pullman Fire Department has a personal interest in education that people sometimes lack, Heston said.

“His interest in learning over a broad range is unique,” Davison said. “People lack the want to learn.”

Heston participates in a management team that helps smaller fire departments fight large fires, like some of the ones that blazed across the state last summer, Heston said.

Heston grew up in Moses Lake, Wash., for most of his life and attended WSU as a student starting in 1979.

He finished school in 1994 with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science and government, with an emphasis in public administration.

In 1981 Heston started working for the Grant County fire district, after taking a break from life as a student and going home to work. While at home he also picked up other jobs such as coaching track and basketball at local area schools, Heston said.

After returning to WSU in 1983 he worked for the WSU Fire Services as a student resident and was hired on full time in 1985.

“I enjoyed working for WSU fire,” Heston said. “We had to be creative, we didn’t have a large budget.”

Heston went on after graduation to be hired by the Pullman Fire Department in 1996 as the assistant fire chief of operations and later went on to become the fire chief in 2013 where he currently resides.