Fire Station 4 said goodbye Thursday to a man who has served more than 40 years with the St. Joseph Fire Department.

Capt. Mike Wiedmaier was presented with a piece of a fire pole and a display box for his fire helmet Thursday, his last day on the job.

“I just felt 40 years was enough.  Not many people can do that or have done it,” Wiedmaier said.

He plans to retire to his 80 acres in the country near Maysville but said he will miss going on calls.

“I’ve probably got the best crew I’ve ever had and now I’m going,” Wiedmaier said.”I do a lot of hunting and fishing.  I’ve got a lot of things I can do around the farm.”

During the interview Wiedmaier’s phone went off as a fire call came through.

“That’s one of the things my wife wants me to get rid of,” he joked.

His first day as a firefighter in St. Joseph was Aug. 16, 1976.  He said the biggest tip he can leave to anyone on the department would be the safety aspect of the job.

“If I weren’t safety minded I probably wouldn’t be here,” he said. “Back in the early 80s I almost died in a fire downtown.  The man who’s chief now, Mike Dalsing and another man who’s retired, Mike Mallory pulled me out.”

Wiedmaier said the floor had fallen in and he was dangling by the hose he was holding onto when he was rescued.

“I got lucky.  I almost didn’t come back to the job,” he said. “To me it was like getting kicked off the horse, I had to try at least one more time.”

He said in the 80s he remembers responding to a lot of big fires in downtown St. Joseph.

“In the 80s we had a lot of big fires like we’ve had recently only more of them in downtown,” Wiedmaier said. “Every fire is different.  You’ve got to have a different thought process almost every fire.”

He has worked for several fire stations in St. Joseph but has spent the past 18 years at Station 4.