Fire Chief reflects on his prestigious career

MARQUETTE — In just over two weeks from now, a longtime public servant will hang up his fireman’s hat for good.

Tom Belt will no longer be the Fire Chief for the city of Marquette at the end of the year. Belt has been a firefighter for more than 40 years. He’s spent the last 21 plus years as Marquette’s top fireman.

During his time in charge, Belt is proud of the growth he’s seen within the department.

“We’ve gone from a traditional fire department to an all risk, all hazard life saving organization, spread into water type rescues, specialized rescues, vehicle extrication and hazardous materials. We’ve grown into all of them, all of those different facets of the fire service,” said Belt.

Ian Davis will replace Belt in January. Davis is currently the department’s Fire Inspector.

Belt says that Davis is more than qualified to take over for him.

“One of the unique things about Ian is that he’s done all of the facets, especially in the last couple of years,” said Belt. “He’s been in the Fire Inspector’s position. And by doing that, he’s exposed to a certain set of talents and a certain set of knowledge in the fire department and experiences too, which are really going to work well when he reaches the chief’s position in a couple of weeks.”

Belt added that he has no concrete plans on what he’s going to do once he retires. He did say that come springtime, the trout might be calling his name.