Fridley Fire Chief James Lange GS'15 will always be an educator at heart

“My classroom was on fire today!” It’s a sentiment most teachers resonate with—for both good and bad days. But for James Lange GS'15, a Bethel Master of Arts in Teaching graduate and the new fire chief of the Fridley Fire Department, the phrase has an entirely new meaning.

Growing up with a dad as a committed paid-on-call firefighter, Lange knew the importance of this public service, and even followed in his dad’s footsteps many years into his career. 

But Lange’s passion began in education. His initial degree in mass communications and advertising landed him a night school teaching position, then online high school credit recovery, and eventually the classroom full-time as a non-licensed community expert teaching a variety of classes from technology to social studies. Lange had found a passion that would never diminish and would support him as a fire chief.

After several years in the classroom, Lange applied for Bethel’s M.A. in Teaching program, which confirmed the path he felt called to pursue. Open to anyone with a bachelor’s degree, the program takes just 17-23 months and allows students to earn a Minnesota teaching license early on—just as Lange did. It also helped him further develop his gift as a teacher.

It’s evident that Lange is grateful for Bethel’s flexibility throughout the graduate program. “They worked with me to get through all of my student teaching at the school I was working at as a teacher,” he says. “I was the only person in my cohort that was able to get paid during my student teaching. I’m not sure how I would have graduated from the program without Bethel working with me.”

It’s a unique and highly rewarding journey Lange has walked since his early days of teaching in a classroom. For some, the jump from full-time teacher with a master’s degree to fire chief is a surprise. But for Lange, the two positions couldn’t be more similar.

Fire safety is public education for an entire city.

After working as a full-time teacher and a paid-on-call firefighter for years, Lange applied for a fire captain position in 2016, excited to build out the public education program for Fridley’s fire department. He started to ask questions like, “How can we offer a more effective education program for our city? How can we reach both adults and children?” 

Although the career move shifted him further from a physical classroom, Lange viewed the entire city of Fridley as his classroom instead.

Lange recalls one specific project where a local apartment complex had several kitchen fires. As a department, they identified the issues, and Lange organized a kitchen fire safety demonstration with special props and video footage. 

Under Lange’s leadership, the department was able to increase their community outreach opportunities and public safety demonstrations. Lange also focused heavily on community risk reduction and using public education to keep the city of Fridley safe. “Public education is a way of asking, ‘How can we step in and provide some kind of education to keep people safer?’” Lange says.

Lange’s classroom may look different than it did at the start of his career, but his commitment to teaching and protecting his community is stronger than ever—and now, he teaches lessons that literally save lives. 

Lesson plans aren’t just for the classroom.

Eventually, Lange was promoted from captain to fire inspector, where he was charged with primary oversight of firefighter training. Firefighter training, according to Lange, covers almost everything imaginable—house fires, delivering a baby, plane crashes, you name it. Firefighters have to be prepared for everything.

Once Lange stepped into the role of fire inspector, he recognized ways to strengthen the department’s training. Although the fire department had great individual drills, there was no set curriculum to ensure training remained consistent. He also recognized that there was very little organization. 

Nothing a teacher couldn’t handle.

“I was able to implement techniques that I had used in the classroom,” Lange says. “We had great training drills, but we didn’t have an organized curriculum. The solution was simple: we needed to develop lesson plans.”

Lange’s goal from the start was to make a great program an excellent one by creating a clear, organized roadmap for high-quality, consistent firefighter training. 

His direction wasn’t just in theory. Trainers filled out templated worksheets with clear lesson plan structure for every training and submitted their plans to Lange. His justification to his team was clear: members retire, move, or leave units, but excellent training has to remain for the safety of the firefighters and citizens of Fridley. The feedback from his team was resoundingly positive. 

Collaboration is key for a successful fire department. 

As any educator knows, collaboration is an essential component of running a thriving school. Although fire departments do not have teachers, content disciplines, or review committees, collaboration is still an important asset, especially between cities.

While Lange continued to climb the ladder from fire inspector to fire marshal, he intentionally tried to take collaboration to the next level, both in his own department and across city lines. 

He shares an example of food truck inspections, “which is not an exciting topic,” Lange says with a smile. “But if you’re a food truck owner, you have to go to every city to get an inspection.” Lange went to the Anoka County fire departments and asked, “How do we create a fire inspection program for food trucks where we can all collaborate?” 

He proposed implementing a reciprocity program, where an inspection in any city in Anoka County would qualify across the county. By leveraging collaboration, the county is now able to save food truck owners multiple inspection fees, while still keeping operators and the public safe by ensuring food trucks are fire code compliant. 

Lange attributes this desire to collaborate directly to his time at Bethel. “I learned the collaboration process at Bethel and while working in education.” 

A fire incident is classroom management on steroids.

After years of steady career growth in the Fridley Fire Department, Lange was promoted to fire chief. One of the many primary roles Lange now fills is incident commander in all city fires. Lange compares the challenges of these situations to classroom management—on steroids. 

“Everyone has some level of stress at a fire incident,” Lange says. “It‘s a large responsibility in an emotionally charged environment, so keeping a cool head is important to be able to make good decisions.” It’s an age-old trick for any teacher. 

“Over the years I have found I could transfer some of my classroom management skills to this far more stressful situation,” Lange says. “Staying calm is not only important for the fire incident itself but also for your personnel.” 

After years of training as a teacher, Lange is equipped to manage, control, make decisions, command, and lead his team—all while maintaining his composure. 

It’s clear that the skills that Lange developed as a teacher and gained in his M.A. in Teaching program at Bethel are not only transferable but also an incredible asset to the Fridley Fire Department.

From the very start and with his continued commitment, Lange knows the value of his education and leverages it daily to improve his department and processes in ways that only a fire chief and former teacher can. 

Explore the Master of Arts in Teaching at Bethel

Empower your calling to teach and lead—whether in a classroom or beyond. Our flexible, Christ-centered program equips you to make a lasting difference in the lives of students and communities.

Learn more