After 28 years at Nikiski Fire Department — and around four as chief of the Nikiski Fire Service Area — Trent Burnett retired April 30.

Friends and colleagues gathered at Nikiski Fire’s Station 1 on May 7 for a retirement party, where a few people shared remarks about Burnett’s career and influence. Nikiski Fire Service Area includes both the two fire stations that serve Nikiski as well as a 6,000-square-mile swath of area that stretches across Cook Inlet to Tyonek and Beluga.

Sam Tauriainen, an engineer and paramedic at the department, said Burnett had served at the department “longer than I’ve been alive.”

In that time, Tauriainen said, Burnett has been firefighter, engineer, captain and chief. He described Burnett as a man with values, who holds people accountable for their work, expects them to show up on time and put their best effort in, and believes in leaving any place “better than when you found it.”

“I’m standing here with this microphone because he believed in me and chose to hold me accountable,” Tauriainen said. “Somebody else might have let me go.”

A message from Sam Satathite, a longtime Kenai firefighter who now works at Marathon Refinery, was read during the party. Satathite credited Burnett with inspiring him to enter the fire service, and said that Burnett always did his best for the people around him.

Burnett didn’t seek to be chief, Satathite wrote, but took on the role “out of a sense of duty to his department.”

“Although he does not seek it, he has my admiration, along with many others that he has served,” Satathite wrote.

Burnett did not speak at the celebration, but Tauriainen said that he “seemed ready to go play golf.” On Facebook, Burnett wrote that his experiences as chief of the Nikiski Fire Service Area “have truly shaped me into a better person, and I will deeply miss the camaraderie and family we’ve built together.”

For more information, find “Nikiski Fire Department” on Facebook.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.