Soileau’s career culminates with recent appointment

The culmination of 30 years in public rescue service has led Chris Soileau to be named the new Fire Chief for Ville Platte and Fire District II. It seems he was born to be a firefighter. His older sister, Cathy, remembers when he was about three or four years old, when someone would ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would say a fireman. “I’ve always wanted to do it. In high school I got kind of serious about doing it,” he said.
After high school, Chris worked in the family business. His parents are Floyd and Jin Soileau, known for Jin Records and Floyd’s Record Shop. Chris worked at the record factory for about a year-and-a-half, and then the fire department had an opening in 1990. He was voted in by the Ville Platte city council that winter. His first year as firefighter he was named Fireman of the Year and was given the award by Mayor Hottle Fontenot. Over a decade later, he went on to marry Fontenot’s granddaughter, Dusti Love Fontenot, whom he considers his best friend.
There was a dive team assembled in the 1980s to perform recovery efforts in lakes and bayous. By the time Chris joined the fire department, there wasn’t much of a dive team left. He said he was hired because he was certified for dive rescue/recovery. Back then, Ville Platte’s dive team would also help in St. Landry parish because they didn’t have a team. Chief Rionel Smith put Chris in charge of the dive team when he was hired. Later, Ted Demourelle got certified for the team. He and Chris co-captained the team for the remainder of the years while it was active. Chris got about six guys to go through Dive Rescue Specialist through LSU Fireman training. “We had a really active team, lots of members.”
When it comes to education, Chris has had dual interests in business administration and fire science. He studied at LSUE and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He first obtained his associate in general studies degree at LSUE. He later changed his major to fire science. “I fell in love with the science of it, the study of it and the organization, the administration management. It was fascinating learning about the alarm and detection systems, the preplanning element of it, the pump hydraulics like flow of water and hydrant systems, national electric code, life safety code NFP 101, etc.”
At ULM, he continued with business, and while enrolled, he went to a local technical school to get his EMT basic certification and then started working for Metro Ambulance where he soon fell in love with that profession. He finished his degree in fire science, taking the class remotely by mail from LSUE. While he had his fire science degree, he had not yet gotten his certifications, so he wasn’t hired as a fireman in Monroe. He kept working with the ambulance company where “I learned a lot and I enjoyed it, but I’d come home on the weekends and as often as I could.”
Chris eventually moved back to Ville Platte in 1994 and attended school at USL for business. He also went back to work at the family record factory until someone set fire to it. He recalled being a volunteer firefighter that night. “It was a terrible phone call to make to my parents.” He was living behind the record store at the time when he got the page. “At night sometimes you can see the glow of the city and when there’s a fire, you can see the smoke plume. I could see it.” While driving to the scene, he called his dad. “Back then we had the bag phones. I was trying to connect the antenna to call and say, ‘Hey, Dad, the plant’s on fire.’ That was tough.”
Chris had wanted to be a full-time firefighter at the time, but there were no openings at the department. Fire Chief Rionel Smith told him he had the EMT certification and suggested he work at Acadian Ambulance for a while. “I did and I loved it. I had some great experiences. It was some of the most enjoyable work I ever did in my life, and most rewarding working with Acadian.” He said he loved the connection between the medics and the patients and it deepened his desire to continue serving.” While working with Acadian Ambulance, Chris made a life-long friend with his ambulance partner, Scott Johnson. “He was the best partner I’ve ever had. It doesn’t get better than Scott Johnson.”
Chris got his shot to work as a firefighter again when his paramedic instructor recruited a couple of paramedics to go work at the Pineville Fire Department. Chris walked on because he was already certified. While he had fun and made some good friends there, he made the decision to leave because he had an opportunity to work in Ville Platte on his old ambulance with Scott. Despite his love of being a paramedic, he eventually left Acadian and went back to work for the family business.
Chris kind of gave up trying to be a full-time firefighter, except for volunteering in the late 1990s. Then the civil service requirements changed in regards to supplemental pay and standard qualifications for firefighters. Everyone at that point going forward had to be certified for Firefighter 1, minimum. He went with the paid firefighters in Ville Platte and worked and studied, learning the material and taking the classes, all in-house with an instructor from LSU who taught him the classes and certified him.
In 2008, Ted Demourelle, who was fire chief at the time, introduced Chris to the guys at the department. They had an opening, so Ted asked him to work at the department. Chris talked to his wife, Dusti, and she was all for him going after his dream. At that point, he had been at the department for 18 years, part-time.
Chris kept up with some of those responsibilities when he became a paid firefighter. He was already certified as a fire service instructor, and had Firefighter 1 and Hazmat Awareness and Hazmat operations, which are the three basic level must-have certifications to start working at a fire department full time. Also, you can’t go on to officer certification until you have Advanced Firefighter 2 certification. Because he started in his late 30s, he had to play catch-up, to study and teach himself, and then acquired his Firefighter 2, Hazmat Operations, Fire Service Instructor 2, Fire Officer 1 and 2, and Fire Investigator. He also enrolled in West Illinois University to continue his studies for a bachelor in general studies with a minor in fire and emergency services administration. He is in his senior year for that.
Chris has also served as Captain, elected by his peers, where he learned about Fire Leadership, teaching people how to operate fire extinguishers, community relations, etc. He and Scott Dupre taught a couple of fire prevention classes which were so well-received, they were being requested to teach in other places. Chris then obtained certification in Fire and Life Safety Educator, where he started learning about the community risk reduction and prevention side of the business. When Chris Harrison became chief, he wanted Soileau to serve in that position full time and take care of the training for the department, so he created a position by authority of the city council and the mayor, and for the first time, they had a Fire Safety and Training Officer position. Chris competed to get in that position and landed the job, which is where he sat until he started his official position as Fire Chief.
According to Chris, officers in small departments still serve as firefighter operators alongside the other operators. “We’re very well cross-trained. We don’t stop doing what we do in the beginning. In fact, our Fire Chief, on many occasions, has been the one to get in the truck while they’re at the station on duty. An alarm comes up and we’re short or we have something else going on in another part of the service area, the Fire Chief’s got to get in the truck and go and be a firefighter operator.”
When he applied for Chief, Chris already had many years of administrative responsibilities with fire prevention, public education, training, and community risk reduction and supervisory experience on the education side. “It was an interesting process to go through, and I’m grateful that I had two firefighting brothers of mine who are very well-qualified for the position as well and gave a lot of years to the department and still do. I know it wasn’t an easy decision for the mayor to make. All we can do is put our best foot forward and do the best we can.”
As Chief, Chris will manage two departments: the City of Ville Platte and Fire District II. In addition, he has the volunteer fire corps in the city and all the volunteer companies in the fire district. “It’s a lot to keep everybody in the position that the community relies on blindly. Everyone assumes when you call 911 the big red trucks are going to show up. That’s what you want. As a tax payer that’s what you pay for and what you expect. Our job is to keep the continuity of service, even through COVID and all the challenges.”
Chris said of his appointment as Fire Chief, “It’s very rewarding. It’s very humbling to get to this position where I finally have my hands on the wheel instead of being in kind of an advisory position for many years as a training officer.” He went on to say, “All firefighters are human. We have needs. We have families. Something I like to promote is personal development in my firefighters. I think that’s why I enjoyed becoming the training officer. I love seeing personnel pushing themselves into new areas. Even our veterans have acquired certifications. They’ve attained their fire instructor certifications. A few of them are pointing towards fire officer level. It really is satisfying to see that. That’s my passion.”
Above all, Chris has respect for his fellow firefighters. “I’ve served with some guys who are just unbelievably dedicated to our community. We do a lot behind the scenes. Putting out fires is a very small percentage of what we actually do. We do so much with preparation for fire rating, maintaining the fire rating, and all the annual and monthly tasks that go into those standards, as well as trying to reduce the fire risk in our community.” He said this year has been tough because of COVID, but the department has been available to businesses, and they love speaking at senior centers and nursing homes. “I like speaking to people about fire safety. If we can make a difference in one life … what’s a life worth?”
In regards to the challenges of this past year, Chris said, “2020 has been an unbelievable year, even for the fire department. We appreciate the support. We had a wonderful opportunity reacquiring the city’s first fire engine from 1927. We got a new chief, but I think the biggest thing for us is it’s our 100 year anniversary this year.” 100 years ago, after the Dance Hall fire of November 1919 when Ville Platte just had a bucket brigade, it took the city until about September of 1920 to formally organize and appoint a fire chief.
Chris said the department’s community involvement with everything from social media presence to newspaper articles and being on KVPI’s “Let’s Talk about It” program, all goes toward a better and safer community. “We have a message we want to share. Besides being safe, it plays a part in our overall protection rating for the community. The more we share, the more people know, they’re connected to us, and the better off we are as a department and a community. The public plays an integral part as the audience and the customer for the protection we get. The support’s been wonderful.” He added, “I’m very blessed to physically be able to do that job. Emotionally, I have the support of my wife and I’m blessed to still have my parents still in my life. This is my 30th year involved in emergency services. I feel like I’m blessed to continue to serve.”
“It’s not a one-man show, by any means. There’s so much to it. The community is blessed to have the dedication because these guys give a lot of hours.”