LEESBURG — Leesburg Fire Chief David Johnson is hanging up his helmet after a 28-year career at the Leesburg Fire Department.

But his retirement doesn't come without a long list of accomplishments and successes. 

Johnson graduated from Jones High School in Orlando in 1988 and decided to attend Fire Fighting and EMT school, following in the footsteps of some of his childhood mentors. He then moved to Leesburg as a rookie firefighter in 1994. 

“Once I got into it, I thought it was intriguing,” Johnson said. “I also thought it was something I could do to serve the community, which I didn’t even know I had that in me.” 

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Over the years, Johnson worked his way up the ranks and was promoted to fire chief in 2014 by City Manager Al Minner. 

“Taking the interim tag off his title was one of the first things I remember doing,” Minner said. “Fire services is a difficult position and they handle many things. They are the takers of our organization. David did a tremendous amount of stuff to better this community.” 

One of Johnson’s first tasks at chief was to reassess whether or not Leesburg needed a fire department. 

“That was one of my first tasks, to see did we even exist?” Johnson said. “That was hard. We went through different exercises, had meetings with the county, ran the numbers and had to present what we found.” 

Another aspect Johnson focused on was better training for recruits. 

“We tried to change the culture within the fire department,” Johnson said. “We try to instill in these young firefighters that this is a dangerous job and you don’t want to become complacent so we’ve instilled in them to train, train hard and train a lot.” 

Johnson was also known for working in the community, specifically in the drum line.  

“We tried to mentor kids and showed them how to play drums,” Johnson. “It was a very interesting time but it was also fulfilling. We got involved in a lot of community events.”

Although Johnson is retiring, he plans to work part time with Texas A&M Emergency Management and also at InfoTrac Chemical Emergency Response Systems in Leesburg. But he’s definitely looking forward to more fishing time. 

Deputy Chief Joe Mera will move up to Chief and plans to continue Johnson’s efforts in firefighter training and community-minded events.

“We have a high standard here for firefighters and Chief Johnson fostered that and we are going to keep that going,” Mera said. “Chief Johnson was really good on analyzing a situation and predicting the best possible outcome. He’s got an incredible 28-year career in this department and I really just want to show my appreciation for all he’s done.”

Johnson specifically wanted to thank his wife, Erika, who stood with him through it all, and also the community for embracing him. 

“I’m really happy that I chose to come to Leesburg and had a chance to grow with this community,” Johnson said. “This community has allowed me to grow in this department and progress through the ranks and serve this community.”