Chaplain Steve began his fire career in the small town of Parkdale, Oregon at the age of 16. He was the first “Jr. Member” in the department. The fire service has been in his blood most of Steve’s life.
As a pastor in Redmond Oregon, he served the Redmond Fire Department as their Chaplain for several years before coming to Hillsboro in 1998. Steve currently serves as Chaplain for two separate departments: Washington County Fire District #2 and the City of Hillsboro Fire Department. He has been with them for almost 10 years.
Steve’s wife of 25 years is Connie. She got hooked on the fire service along side of Steve and has been adopted by “The boys” as their special mom and favorite baker of home made cinnamon roles.
Connie is the Administrative Manager for Washington County Fire District #2 and works out of the office inside Station 17 in North Plains, Oregon. They have 4 children and 8 grandchildren, all living in the northwest.
You will find Chaplain Steve on call 24/7 with his departments, as well as serving the Hillsboro Police as needed. His duties take him on scene any time a family experiences a traumatic event that impacts their world or along side a fire fighter as they meet life’s challenges head on. He can also be found around the dinner table at any fire station, doing station visits to check on his “kids”, performing fire fighter weddings and as it may be, their funerals.
Chaplain Steve was sent to assist with the recovery efforts when hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the South. Hillsboro Fire sent him and a small group of fire fighters to help for 30 days. They arrived within 5 days of Katrina making landfall and worked 7 days per week, 12 hours per day for the entire time.
He is finding his role also now includes training fire fighters as well as new Chaplains as they begin their adventures within their own departments.
Chaplain Steve sees the calling upon his life as nothing less than serving the needs of our citizens and their fire fighters. Steve says he was “born for this journey” and that “God has been preparing him for just such an hour as this.”
Steve Brodehl
Executive Director, Public Safety Chaplaincy
Chaplain: Hillsboro Fire Dept & Washington Co. Fire Dept #2
503-341-1621
brodehl125@gmail.com
