After 43 years behind the nozzle, Dan Stout is giving up his fire-service gig.

“The old turnout boots are gonna be put away,” said Stout, who this week announced he would retire in February as chief of Island County Fire District 3.

“I plan to finish the year strong, then spend a lot of time with my family,” he said.

A search for his successor has already begun.

“We’ll have someone in place by the end of the year,” Kenon Simmons, chairman of the district’s three-man board of commissioners, said Wednesday.

Simmons said an executive-search consultant will be hired to compile a nationwide slate of candidates. He said the top few would be brought in for interviews.

“It’s been a privilege working with Dan,” Simmons said. “He brought a high level of experience. He’s definitely done a very good job of managing the resources of the district to keep us operating in the black.”

Stout, who just turned 66, said he will return to Spokane, where he and his wife Colleen have restored a

1914 farmhouse in the middle of several acres of wheat. His son and two daughters and his granddaughter all live in the Spokane area.

He hopes to do some volunteer work, although not in the fire service.

“I think 43 years are enough,” he said.

Stout came to the South Whidbey district as chief in February 2004, after 12 years with a fire district in Spokane, the last 10 as chief.

Before that, he was a firefighter for 25 years with the Santa Barbara, Calif. Fire Department, retiring as a battalion chief.

When he moved to Spokane, he contemplated driving a school bus to keep busy, then the fire service job turned up.

Twelve years later, the South Whidbey job turned up, too.

“It’s been extremely rewarding,” Stout said of his second career.

“I couldn’t be more blessed.

“I’ve seen tragedy, too,” he added, “but the rewards are the good things you can do as part of a service that helps people.”

The biggest difference between here and the other two places he has worked?

“Wildland,” he said. “We don’t have wildland fires on Whidbey Island, thank goodness.”

“I’ve really enjoyed working with them,” Stout said of District 3’s mostly-volunteer force. “They’re very good people. I think Whidbey should be thankful for them.”

He said he’s proud of his contributions the past five years in helping to put together a strategic plan “that presents a roadmap into the future,” in the building of the $1.5 million Langley Fire Station, which opened late last year, and in purchasing property in Bayview that eventually will contain the hub of the district’s operations.

Meanwhile, district officials remain uncertain how to proceed with a proposed new headquarters and training center at Bayview Corner, on property across from Bayview School.

Before the economy turned sour, the district was considering asking taxpayers this year for an additional $4 million for the Bayview project, and to make needed improvements to existing facilities.

“Like other agencies, we’re tightening our belts,” Simmons said. “There are challenging times ahead to maintain the level of service.”

“Someday we’ll need to come to the taxpayers,” he added. “But being a taxpayer myself, this isn’t the day.”

Last year, the district’s total revenue was a little more than $2 million, and this year’s operating budget is about $1.8 million, about the same as 2008. The district has been debt-free for more than 10 years.

He plans to spend much of his remaining time on the job participating in the selection of his successor, and he hopes the district can find one for a little less money.

“I’m looking for a search that will bring the best fit for the district,” he said. “But not a lot of people will probably want to make a change in these times.

“We don’t want to offer too much, but we want to be competitive,” he added.

The district includes about 66 square miles from the south end of the island north to a mile beyond Honeymoon Bay Road. It’s six stations serve about 16,000 people.

Stout’s salary this year is $97,200. The district has six full-time employees, six part-time firefighters and more than 80 volunteers.

But this time next year, Stout won’t be among them. He’ll be in Eastern Washington, watching the wheat grow.

“I’ve made some very close friends here,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll be back on occasion.”

Thinking back over his career, he added: “If I had it to do over, I’d still join the fire service.”