Cd'A Fire's Dietrich named Shoshone County Fire chief

KELLOGG — Coeur d’Alene Fire Department EMS Officer Scott Dietrich has been chosen to fill the boots of retiring Shoshone County Fire District No. 2 Fire Chief Mark Aamodt.

“I’m honored to be selected for the position," Dietrich said.

After 39 years of service, Aamodt recently celebrated the announcement of his retirement at the firehouse in Kellogg. Aamodt, a Kellogg native, first entered firefighting and medical service in 1982 as a volunteer firefighter with the Kellogg Fire Department and worked part-time with the Shoshone County EMS Corporation.

“It was mainly the desire to help people,” Aamodt said. "I was initially interested in ambulance and paramedic-type work.”

Aamodt has been at the helm to steer Shoshone County Fire District No. 2 through substantial changes and growth in the past nine years, from new stations and an EMS district to bond passages and some major structure fires.

After Aamodt announced his retirement, Coeur d’Alene Fire Department made it official that Dietrich would be his successor.

Dietrich, a native of Coeur d’Alene, entered fire service while attending Walla Walla Community College. He signed up as a volunteer at College Place Fire Department, changed his major and left Walla Walla for Salem, Ore., where he received his firefighting degree in 1997.

“I was hooked,” Dietrich said.

He said being able to help people is No. 1, but the career is also about the camaraderie and family aspect of the firefighters and fire service.

“I really hadn’t intended to be a firefighter," he said. "Once I started though, it was like ‘Yep, I love it.' I love every bit of it."

Dietrich returned to Coeur d’Alene, worked with Arrow Ambulance and went back to school to obtain his nursing degree from North Idaho College in 2002. He worked at Kootenai Health for seven years before jumping back into firefighting with CDAFD in 2009. Dietrich served as a firefighter/paramedic with CDAFD for 13 years, capping off his tenure with a promotion to EMS officer — essentially, EMS chief.

Living within SCFD No. 2 in Cataldo and volunteering in a minor capacity, Dietrich heard Aamodt was retiring. Recommendations soon followed for him to look into the job.

“That was somewhat unexpected,” Dietrich said. “This was never a career goal of mine.”

Aamodt joined Kellogg Fire Department in 1983 as a firefighter/EMT. He stayed with Kellogg Fire and worked part-time with the Shoshone County EMS Corporation until the late '80s, when the department was absorbed by SCFD No. 2. He stayed with the district until leaving for a position at the Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office in 2004.

Aamodt said being a fire investigator was the “best job in the world, right next to this one.”

In 2013, former Shoshone Fire Chief Dale Costa retired, opening the path for Aamodt to return to work in his hometown.

In his nine years wearing the white shirt, Aamodt said he was most proud of the work he and the rest of his team did in acquiring new buildings in Medimont, Pinehurst, and, especially, Kellogg. The Pinehurst station was purchased and outfitted in 2021 using bond funding.

“When I first got started, Chief Costa had already started working on Medimont (fire station),” he said. “We knew that we needed to upgrade in Kellogg because our old station was over 100 years old.”

Aamodt said he believes Dietrich is a fantastic choice to succeed him and is the right person to tackle projects he hoped he could have gotten to, like getting a ladder truck and paramedic-level service for the district.

“That’s a big monster to tackle, but we’re going to see what we have to do to make that happen,” Dietrich said of the paramedic service.

Aamodt thanked the community for its support and shared one last “Word from the Chief."

"Time change is coming up!" he said. "Change your clocks and change your smoke detector batteries!”