MERRILL – A 20-year veteran of the Merrill Fire Department has retired from his service as a firefighter and paramedic. Chris Clabots retired on July 15, according to the Merrill Fire Department.
Clabots started his emergency services career with the Merrill Fire Department on July 14, 2000, according to the department. Prior to his employment with the fire department, Clabots worked as the safety director for E.J. Peter Trucking and WH Transportation and the operations manager at Marth Transportation.
He also was a one-time member of the Village of Howard Volunteer Fire Department, the Hamburg Volunteer Fire Department and the Corning Volunteer Fire Department. During his time with those departments, he served as fire inspector and training officer. He also served Corning as a first responder. Later he was a first responder and the service director for Russell First Responders.
Clabots also taught many health and safety courses during his tenure and is part of the training faculty at Northcentral Technical College and Nicolet Area Technical College.
“As fire chief, I recognize the impact Chris has made on our department which is why it will be hard to replace him. As a firefighter/paramedic who also ran calls with Chris, I can tell you that I never felt like there wasn’t a call we couldn’t handle,” said Fire Chief Josh Klug.
Merrill Fire Department has hired firefighter/paramedic Jacob Aumann as Clabots replacement.
