Longtime St. Cloud Firefighter Retires After 27 Years

ST. CLOUD -- St. Cloud Battalion Chief Leon Faust has called it a career.

Faust worked his last shift Monday ending his 27-year run with the St. Cloud Fire Department. He says working with the fire department was a dream come true.

It was very rewarding work. I was able to promote through the ranks and earned more responsibility and challenges. It was a career that kept me engaged and as it turned out it was a passion that I didn't realized was as strong as it was.

Faust began his career as a volunteer with the Waite Park fire department, before working as a building inspector for St. Cloud, then moving to the St. Cloud fire department.

He says the biggest change from when he first began was having fire crews respond to medical calls.

I believe it was around 2007 when we started responding to medical calls. I think it was a good change and we've been able to help tons of people over the years. I think our calls went from about 1,000 a year to over 6,000 a year.

Faust says he is looking forward to spending more time with this family and getting a chance to travel and explore Minnesota.