Joe Biller has been in the business of saving people for 32 years.

One of the Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue chief’s proudest accomplishments doesn’t involve burning buildings or car crashes. It’s more of a political achievement, but no less lifesaving.

“This is the tripped sprinkler head that saved the lives of two women,” he said, holding up a small piece of metal that was sitting on his desk.

Following a tragic fire in Bremerton more than a decade ago, Biller convinced the Coupeville Town Council to retroactively install sprinklers in the CamBay Apartments, which house low-income senior citizens. It was expensive, but Biller’s stubborn foresight proved to be wise when a potentially fatal fire started years later.

At the end of this year, Biller will be taking his sprinkler head and leaving his office at the Race Road station. The perpetually-good-natured leader of the fire department is retiring to spend more time playing with the grandkids, scuba diving and restoring antique cars.

“I finally convinced my wife that I wouldn’t bug her too much at home,” he said.

The leaders of the fire department are making a great effort to involve the community in the process of finding a new chief. They hired a firm to help define what people want and to perform the search. Tomorrow, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m., they are holding a community meeting at the Race Road Fire Station to ask folks what they would like to see in a new leader.

“We want to make another good decision,” said Fire Commissioner Paul Messner, who was on the board 20 years ago when they hired Biller as the first paid fire chief for Central Whidbey.

“From day one, Joe always fit in with the guys. He was always out there, getting his hands dirty and running hose,” he added. “He’s very hands-on. He melted a couple of helmets by getting into places that are a little warm.”

For Biller, becoming a firefighter was almost a fluke. He wasn’t one of those kids who dreamed of becoming a firefighter.

In fact, he was an auto mechanic in Auburn, but was home because of a strike back in 1976. A kid next door started a stump on fire and the firefighters who responded asked Biller to volunteer as a firefighter. And the rest, as they say, is history.

As a firefighter in Bonney Lake, Biller received a commendation in a tragic case. A woman slammed her car into a school bus full of children, killing herself in a horrific manner. Biller noticed the kids looking out the window of the bus at the carnage. He immediately got onto the bus, borrowed a child’s book about E.T., gathered the children around him and read.

“I can still remember the kids’ sad eyes looking out at us,” he said. “I thought, they don’t have to see this.”

After fighting fires for years in Bonney Lake and Lacey, Biller got the job as fire chief on Central Whidbey. It was a difficult time, he said, because the district had 11 fire deaths in an 18-month period. Firefighters were shaken up.

“He came at a time when we were starting to grow and we weren’t sure what to do,” Messner said. “He’s been a good leader along the way.”

Besides emphasizing training and safety, Biller said his philosophy has been to provide quality customer service to the people of the district. That means stopping on the side of the road to help a motorist or pulling a cat out of a tree.

Biller and his wife, Sharon, began the annual Christmas tradition of the Santa Mobile, with jolly old St. Nick touring Central Whidbey on the back of a decorated fire truck. Biller said he can still remember the face of one tiny girl who was so excited she was shaking.

“She yelled out, ‘Happy Easter,’” he said with a chuckle.

There’s been a lot of changes during Biller’s tenure. It’s harder nowadays to recruit volunteer firefighters, especially with the increased training and physical demands. He has a file with the names of 215 people who’ve gone through the department in the last 20 years.

“It’s really a second career,” he said. “I really have to applaud the guys and gals in the community who find the time.”

Because of the demands, the department has turned to hiring more paid staff. There are currently nine full-time and 10 part-time paid firefighters, plus 25 to 30 volunteers.

Biller hopes to continue helping the department after he retires, but Messner said there’s one time when he won’t be very welcome.

“When he does night shifts, nobody wants to sleep with him because he snores,” Messner said. “I think that’s the only bad thing I can say about him.”