After a public service career spanning nearly three decades, Evanston Fire Chief Paul Polep is retiring from his leadership role, effective May 21.
Polep has served the City of Evanston’s Fire Department since 1996. It’s a position he calls “the greatest job in the world.”
Under Polep’s tenure, the Fire Department has introduced a number of key initiatives to improve public safety and community outcomes, including implementing a third ambulance for city use to improve response times, adding a tower truck for rescue operations and reimagining lakefront safety operations to oversee lifeguards in collaboration with the Parks and Recreation Department.
But Polep said above all else, it’s the community of people he’s worked with that he’s most proud of.
“The teamwork that you have with folks and getting everyone together to get something to happen, making things better for the community, that has always been my favorite thing about being in a leadership role around here,” Polep told the Pioneer Press.
“You can’t move anything forward by yourself, right? You have to do it together and [through] the relationships we’ve built with city management, city elected officials, with union leadership to bring ideas together…and then pushing those ideas forward.”
Polep first took a formal interest in the job during an eight-year stint as a lineman at Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), a role he said left him constantly thinking about firefighting.
But after getting hired as a paid, on-call volunteer with McHenry Township Fire Protection District in McHenry County, he was officially hooked.
“I would hang out at the firehouse just waiting for calls to come in, and hanging out with some of the senior members there and the mentors. It was a very family-orientated kind of place because it was all volunteer…People just wanted to be there… to help,” Polep said.
Although Polep had “a little blood in the fire service,” with an uncle who previously served as a Chicago firefighter, he didn’t fully recognize the profession’s impact until he started actively going out on calls and seeing the visible difference it can make in a person’s life.
After Polep accepted a buyout from ComEd in 1995, he said he knew he needed to go all in.
When he joined the Evanston Fire Department in 1996, he simultaneously worked as a firefighter for McHenry Township Fire Protection District, taking on 24-hour shifts six times a month, which he continued until 2015 when he was promoted to Evanston’s division chief position.
Polep steadily rose through the ranks over the course of his career, being promoted from captain in 2007 to division chief in 2015, to deputy chief in 2019 and then lastly fire chief in April 2021.
As fire chief, he currently manages five Evanston fire stations, apart from the standalone department headquarters.
For a coverage area of just over eight square miles, Polep said the Fire Department fields roughly 36 calls a day, averaging to about 12,500 a year.
While the stations are “older” in build and perhaps being “outgrown” by the department, Polep said the facilities team works hard to keep the building processes up to date.
“Could we do better? Of course, but what we have now works really well with the team that we have,” he added.
Upon reflecting on the vast array of emergency responses he’s led over the course of his career, Polep said it’s not the “incidents” that stick with him the most, but “the people you’re going through this career with.”
“I say that I’ve never had a bad day, right? I’ve had a few challenging ones, but I’ve never had a bad day working here. I just love this job,” Polep said.
“It’s the people you work with, men and women, who train, and then when it’s time to go to work, you can look to your right or look to your left, someone has your back and you have theirs just as well.”
While Evanston begins its search for the next fire chief, City Manager Luke Stowe has appointed Deputy Chief Matt Smith to serve as interim leader.
“I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to Chief Polep for his decades of dedication, leadership, and service to the Evanston community, and wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” Stowe said in a city news release.
Following his retirement on May 21, Polep plans to return to the department where his career began, but this time serving as McHenry Township Fire Protection District’s deputy chief of operations.
“I think I have a lot to offer and a lot to bring back [to McHenry],” Polep said.
“When the time is right, hopefully we can implement certain things and just listen to the department, listen to the new members and what they’re driving for and hopefully create a really good culture moving forward.”
Polep will assume the new position beginning June 8.
