{"id":293207,"date":"2026-04-30T14:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293207\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:29:09","slug":"longest-serving-bakersfield-firefighter-retires-daily-dispatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293207\/","title":{"rendered":"Longest-serving Bakersfield firefighter retires – Daily Dispatch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

VIDEO: After decades of service, the Bakersfield Fire Department is celebrating the retirement of one of its longest-serving firefighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 11 years old, we had a fire at my house. My garage caught on fire,\u201d said Captain Joe Rutledge. \u201cAnd I watched firemen do their job and thought that\u2019s what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not every day a firefighter retires \u2014 especially after four decades in service. Rutledge has been a commanding voice in Bakersfield Fire since the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good firefighter does the minimum of what they\u2019re what\u2019s required of them. A great firefighter will go above and beyond and have great bedside manner with patients,\u201d Rutledge said. Starting at 23 years old, Rutledge has had a lengthy career of helping the Bakersfield community \u2014 even beginning a tradition of fighting flames within his own family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the first-generation firefighter of my family. My son is a firefighter in Wichita Falls, Texas. My grandson is a firefighter for Kern County Fire Department,\u201d Rutledge said. \u201cSo, I feel my legacy in a certain way is going to be continued.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutledge always wanted to be a captain, and even in his 60s, he never wanted to leave the action. For Fire Chief Kevin Albertson, he is saying goodbye to one of his early mentors.<\/p>\n

KGET-TV NBC\/CW+ 17 Bakersfield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VIDEO: After decades of service, the Bakersfield Fire Department is celebrating the retirement of one of its longest-serving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,7],"class_list":["post-293207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-california"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}