Longtime firefighter made his Markss

Gretchen Hoffman

GLENDALE -- More than 40 years ago, Joel Markss’ friends had a

conversation that had a powerful impact on firefighting.

“There was a group of guys I ran around with, and we were talking

about what we were going to do with our lives,” said Markss, a battalion

chief for the Glendale Fire Department. “One friend started talking about

being a firefighter, and the next thing you know, all six of us ended up

in a fire department someplace.”

Markss, a La Canada Flintridge resident, spent two years working for

the Beverly Hills Fire Department before joining the Glendale Fire

Department in 1960. In the 42 years since, he swears there’s never been a

day he didn’t want to come to work.

When he retires later this year, he’ll take with him vast knowledge of

firefighting and the Glendale department, which he says taught him

everything he knows.

Markss, 65, was promoted to engineer in 1973, captain in 1978 and

battalion chief in 1983. He took the reins of the paramedic program when

it kicked off on March 1, 2000.

The walls of his office are lined with plaques, awards he’s received

and photographs of fires he was in charge of bringing down.

He points to one picture of an apartment fire on Louise Street a few

years ago.

“With the tools and equipment, training and knowledge we all had when

I came here, that building would have burned to the ground,” he said.

Instead, his team of firefighters was able to confine the fire to the

apartment in which it started.

“For me personally, the most significant thing that I can do is be in

command of an incident that could have been a disaster but you were able

to mitigate it,” he said. “Having an opportunity to help people is the

most rewarding thing that you can do.”

He’s been at the helm of so many department initiatives that he gets

bashful just thinking about naming them all.

In what is perhaps his most visible achievement, he served as project

manager for the building of three Glendale fire stations -- 21, 22 and 25

-- and a maintenance facility. During the 10-year project, he went the

extra mile to solicit input from the people who’d be using the stations,

including constructing a mock work station for dispatchers to try out.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is now, the dispatchers love

their dispatch center,” he said. “When we were done with each one of the

projects, the people that were working there find that it’s functional.”