When Laurie Evans joined the Moose Jaw Fire Department as a firefighter on May 16, 1983, he was living out his boyhood dream.

His father had been a firefighter and Evans decided to give it a try and follow in his dad’s footsteps.

Now, after 37 years with the fire department, Evans retired on Wednesday.

He said when he first started out there was a little bit of training, but their main job was to simply fight fires.

Senior Captain Laurie Evans (Photo Courtesy: City of Moose Jaw)A lot of changed since then, as firefighters are used in a lot of capacities.

“We do more medical stuff. We do a lot more extraction and vehicle accidents,” Evans said.

“We do confined space, high angle rescue, low angle rescue, trench rescue, water rescue, all these different pieces of training that we've done in the last number of years. It makes our job quite a bit different that's for sure."

Evans was promoted to captain in charge of training in February of 2002 but chose to move back to his firefighter position the following year.

On Oct. 1, 2011, Evans was named lieutenant and would finish off his career as the senior captain.

He said he’s going to miss the camaraderie among the firefighters at the hall.

“It's just like being in a big family. Everybody knows everybody's little quarks and knows their families and it is a pretty close, tight-knit community within our job," he said.

When it comes to moments that stuck out to Evans, he said the fire on New Year’s Day in 2004 that destroyed the Joyner’s Department Store building is one event that he’ll always remember.

Along with firefighting, Evans gave back to the community through coaching hockey and baseball.

He said he’ll always have good memories of being about to help people in the community.