By Claire Taylor
The Advocate
LAFAYETTE, La. — When Robert Benoit heads to work Monday morning, for the first time in 32 years, he won’t be reporting to the downtown fire station as chief of the Lafayette Fire Department.
Instead, he will report to Acadian Ambulance, where he will be working full-time as a fire liaison supervisor.
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The position, he said, will keep him connected to the fire services. Acadian Ambulance was looking for someone with his credentials and relationships with fire departments across the state.
Benoit’s last day with the fire department was Friday.
People asked Benoit why he stayed with the department for 46 years when he could do something else making more money or retire.
I would always say, ‘God placed me here for a reason. When it’s time for me to go he’s going to let me know,’” he said. “He let me know.”
Some may not know, but in addition to leading the fire department, Benoit has been involved in ministry. He was ordained at his church in 2019 and has been doing prison ministry at the correctional center and with juveniles for years.
He was in seminary six years, earning a degree in theology from Grand Canyon University and a master’s in divinity from Wesley Seminary.
“I knew when I graduated from seminary in April God was going to move me,” he said in an interview Aug. 13 . “I always prayed to God to let me know when it’s time to go. Don’t let me stay too long but don’t let me leave too quick.
“I started to feel it and blessings started to come to me. That’s when I realized God was telling me that he was going to be moving me.”
When Benoit walked into first grade and was handed a book about firefighting, he knew that was what he wanted to do with his life. Well, that or a train conductor.
Benoit graduated from high school midterm in December 1975 at 17 years old, too young to join the fire department.
He worked several jobs until the age limit was lowered from 21 to 18, and he applied at 20. Fire Chief Wayne Prejean called him three weeks later offering him a job. Benoit had never met a firefighter in person or set foot in a fire station until then.
“That was the most exciting day of my life,” he reflected.
Benoit remembers the first fire he fought. It was a house fire on Gilman Road, fully engulfed.
“I was kind of scared, going through the structure,” he said. “Hearing noises, stuff falling from the ceiling, the fire crackling, feeling my way around.”
Resting on the ground afterward, smoke drifting off his protective gear, he realized he really liked fighting fires.
“It felt good helping people,” he said.
Always energetic, Benoit learned all that he could about the fire service, reading and testing for positions he didn’t even want. He was promoted quickly, becoming a driver in two years. He served in communications, was promoted to captain, served in fire suppression again. He was asked to help solve arson cases and worked in fire prevention where he learned from fire investigators with the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and insurance companies.
On Aug. 7, 1993, Mayor Kenny Bowen appointed Benoit fire chief, the first and only Black man to serve in that post. He would achieve something few, if any, others in the top level of city or city-parish administration would: serve under eight mayors and mayor-presidents.
There are different requirements and tests for each fire chief in the state. During his final week as fire chief, in addition to packing up three decades of mementos in his downtown office, interviewing recent fire academy graduates and saying his goodbyes, Benoit spent several hours writing an analysis of all that the Lafayette fire chief does so the state examiner can create a test for those applying to replace him.
The last time a test was given for Lafayette fire chief was 32 years ago.
Reflecting on more than four decades with the fire department, Benoit said he never woke up feeling like he didn’t want to go to work.
“For me, this was always a journey, a joyous occasion,” he said. “Everything I did didn’t feel like I was working. It felt like I was giving back to society, and it felt good.
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