County fire chief plans
to retire

By Carrie A. Mizell

Gilchrist County Fire Chief Carlos Perez announced last week his plans to retire from the Gilchrist County Fire Department on Sept. 27, 2010.
“I’m 66 and it’s just time,” Perez said on Monday.
The Spring Ridge resident said that his two years as public safety director and two years as fire chief in Gilchrist County, wraps up 45 total years of fire service.
Perez’s career began at the age of 20 in Jacksonville. While attending Jones Business College, Perez volunteered as a firefighter in Duval County.
“In those days you had to be 5’8 to be a firefighter,” Perez explained.
Firefighters Perez worked with instructed him to lay out on a stretcher overnight in hopes that he would stretch out in time for his physical. The next morning Perez still measured a quarter inch too short, so the firefighters cut paper out and stuffed it in his socks. Unfortunately, Perez had to take his shoes and socks off for the physical, so he was deemed not tall enough. Fortunately for the fire chief it wasn’t long before the Civil Rights Act passed and height was no longer an issue.
Despite having an offer to work as a commercial pilot for Eastern Airlines, Perez opted for his first love, firefighting.
“My father-in-law worked as a captain for Eastern Airlines and I don’t think he ever forgave me,” Perez said with a laugh. “That is, until they went bankrupt. Then he thought my decision to be a firefighter was the smartest thing he ever heard.”
He took a job in Dade County where he worked for 25 years before retiring. After working near Atlanta and in Knoxville, Tenn., Perez moved back to Florida. Gilchrist County appealed to Perez because he knew numerous retirees from Dade County who moved to the Spring Ridge area and raved about their new home.
“I don’t plan to go anywhere,” Perez said, in reference to his retirement. “I am going to do some consulting work and volunteer at Spring Ridge.”
Perez said he recalled neighbors in Tennessee who always said they would retire one day, buy an RV and travel. Sadly, the husband passed away before the couple could do that.
“I didn’t want that to be me,” Perez said.