Wakulla Fire Rescue Chief Louis
By LINDA ANN McDONALD
Correspondent
A true public servant is characterized by altruism, a deep sense of duty to the public, and a commitment to integrity and transparency. Their decisions and actions are guided by the welfare of the community and the nation, often at the expense of personal gain or comfort.
True public servants are characterized by their unwavering commitment to the common good, transparency in their actions, and a willingness to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of the public.
Firefighters are considered heroes because they run towards danger while others run away. They don’t give up until the job is done and bring both brains and brawn to their work. Firefighters Inspire others to be special and they do much more than just fight fires, including saving people, preventing future fires, and helping in emergencies.
Wakulla County’s Fire Chief Louis Lamarche III is a prime example of both a Wakulla hero and a Wakulla public servant.
“I live, eat, breathe fire,” says Lamarche.
Lamarche was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, later moving to Pensacola at 2 years old to again move to Tallahassee at the age of 10, finally making his permanent move to Wakulla in 2003.
Lamarche married his wife Amy, formerly known as Amy Marks, who is from Wakulla.
Lamarche completed his Fire Fighter Paramedic education at Chipola College, emerging as a Fire Officer II and a Fire Training Instructor working in Lynn Haven, Bay County, Florida and working for Franklin County EMS for 4 years.
“My family is the most important thing to me,” he says while turning and pointing to a framed family photograph mounted on the wall in his office. “I have one daughter, Naomi, and two stepchildren, Caitlyn and Kaleb Weaver – they are my family.”
For fun, Lamarche says, “I like fishing – anything on the water, camping outdoors and trips to the mountains.”
“I am a behind the scenes guy personality, but when it comes to the Fire Department, I am the first in line,” he says.
He came to the Wakulla County Fire Department in 2003, later earning the position of Fire Chief in 2016.
“Wakulla is a great place to work,” he says. “I love working here, the community is very supportive, the county administration and the county commissioners are great. It is exciting to see where we came from as a small county and to watch us growing as a community is rewarding.”
“We are the premier up and coming fire-rescue, we are merged, which means instead of paying one department for each fire and rescue separately, we are merged, and we can do both the medical and rescue side of things, and for their tax dollars, the citizens are getting more bang for their buck.”
“We are special ops in rope rescue, and we have numerous staff trained up in urban search and rescue and these staff get to train with the Task Force 17 in Tallahassee, bringing back the skills learned from the Tallahassee crew, we are getting premium training from Tallahassee and bringing it back home with us.”
“Also to keep up with the population growth of Wakulla County, a new fire engine bought with legislative funding was placed in Crawfordville – similar to the last engine our department purchased. The purpose of purchasing similar vehicles, keeping it like the other, is to have interoperability, the uniformity of the equipment apparatus.”
We have one new truck, and we have two more ordered and it will be here almost a year out, Lamarche says.
“Right now, we are looking to grow the administrative side a little more and develop a community paramedic program, the project is in its early stage right now. It is all in effort to mitigate the number of ambulance calls and keep treatment local, the ambulances will treat on scene.”
Keeping the health and the needs of the community as priority, Lamarche says, “In the future, we will evaluate the needs of the county, the partnerships with health providers and evaluate the gap in health care and see what the needs are and move forward from there; it is a slow process but we are focusing on treating on scene, this way we don’t have to take low activity calls to the hospital and it keeps resources in the county.”
Assistant Chief Richard Lewis along with Lamarche said, “Another component of this new project is the social worker component of the community health worker; this will enable us to assist the Wakulla community on a new level.”
‘I know when I get to sit back and retire, I will know I had something to do with it and I will be proud,” Lamarche says with a smile.
