Anthony Blint to be new Mt. Pleasant Fire Chief

MT. PLEASANT — After 31 years of service with the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department, Fire Chief Drew Schumacher will pass the title onto Senior Captain Anthony Blint next week.

This past January, the Mt. Pleasant City Council accepted Schumacher’s resignation from the position effective March 31, and this month it approved Blint’s application to fill the role effective April 1.

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While Blint doesn’t have Schumacher’s 31 years of experience, he has served with the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department for the last 22 years. During that time, Blint says he worked his way up through the ranks of firefighter to the role of officer and eventually Assistant Chief.

According to Blint, his adventure into the fire service began in the early 2000 when a co-worker with the State of Iowa invited him to see if he might like being a firefighter.

“Next thing I knew, I really enjoyed it,” Blint said. “Here we are, many years later going into a role I never thought I’d be going into and wasn’t even on my radar back in the day.”

Even now, before officially taking on the role as Chief, Blint looks forward to training up additional individuals interested in serving. He invites anyone else that might be interested like he was just over 20 years ago to reach out and see if serving as a firefighter might just be something they’d like to do as well.

He remembers a time when the fire reserves had many more serving, and now the number is significantly fewer.

“So, we definitely want to build the numbers back up,” he said.

Despite his enthusiasm for building up the department, Blint did not realize until recently that he would end up serving the community in this role, though he says his wife and daughter seemed to know well before him.

“My boy is really excited about this adventure,” Blint said. “My wife’s been around the fire service all her life, so, she assumed probably sooner than I did that this was probably the best step for me. Then Abby, my daughter, just thought this is kind of another next step in the fire service, too.”

According to Blint, the assumption wasn’t too odd as firefighters are accustomed to a chain of command that many times put him in the role of making decisions on a scene as the highest-ranking firefighter present.

“I never thought I wanted to be chief someday at all,” Blint said. “But when Drew [Schumacher] said he was stepping down, the thought crossed my mind and some of the guys really wanted me to step up into that role. So, I decided to fill out the paperwork and give it a shot.”

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The support of the department is incredibly important to Blint.

“Even after they offered the position to me, I said, well, I got to talk to the guys,” Blint said.

So, that’s what he did. With their blessing, Blint decided to move forward into this new role, but not without taking what he has learned with him.

“All the guys in the past that really helped out throughout the years have taught each of us many things,” Blint said.

For the last five years Blint has served as Assistant Chief under Schumacher, and he intends to take all his learned from Schumacher’s mentoring with him into this new role. Even with years serving right alongside Schumacher, Blint says he won’t hesitate to call Schumacher if he has any questions or needs.

“He has always been willing and calling him has always been on the table,” Blint shared. “He’s always going to be there.”

Blint won’t fly completely solo come April 1 either. According to him, Schumacher will stay on for a period of time to help Blint learn more about the behind-the-scenes part of being a chief.

According to Blint his main goal as he takes on the responsibilities of fire chief is to work with the whole department to “continue to serve the community and surrounding areas and keep everyone safe.”

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com