Nick Dobrusky was elected fire chief of the North Bend Volunteer Fire Department Jan. 8. He is enthusiastic about the current state of the department.
Dobrusky takes charge of 'well oiled machine'
by Nathan Arneal
Published 1/29/25
Nick Dobrusky grew up in the North Bend fire station, where his grandfather Leonard Dobrusky was a member and his stepfather Richard King was chief.
He figures he started making regular visits to the fire station at age 7.
“It’s probably not legal in today’s world because of the way everything works now,” Dobrusky said, “but yeah, I got to ride on trucks, go to calls. ‘Sit in truck. Don’t move. Don’t touch nothing’ type of deal. But I did get to ride with the guys and go do something that probably never should have happened.”
Now Dobrusky, 34, is carrying the family legacy as North Bend Volunteer Fire Department’s new chief as a Jan. 8.
Dobrusky was an assistant chief for the last two years under Waylon Fischer, who is now stepping into an assistant chief role after 6 years as chief.
Pat Tawney is the president of the North Bend Rural Fire Protection District board, which oversees the NBVFD. He said he is happy to see Fischer continue as assistant chief and step into a newly created role of department treasurer.
“Nick is a worker,” Tawney said. “Waylon is a bookkeeper. Waylon does a lot of reports. Waylon is kind of a stickler on that. Nick is a sticker about what we do out on the street. I think it will be a nice mix.”
Dobrusky is a North Bend native and a 2008 graduate of North Bend Central. He knew from a young age fire fighting was in his blood. When he turned 16, Dobursky was in the first class of the NBVFD cadet program. He became a full member of the department at 18.
After high school he attended Southeast Community College to study fire protection technology.
While living near Fremont, he was a member of the Cedar Bluffs Fire Department for a while before moving back to North Bend and getting a job as a mechanic at the Cargill plant in Schuyler.
He rejoined North Bend’s fire department in 2020 and quickly climbed the ranks as safety officer, lieutenant, assistant chief and now chief.
Dobrusky was drawn to fire fighting by a desire to help people when they are at their lowest point. When disaster strikes, he said, people don’t call their loved ones, they call the fire department.
“Firefighters are the only people that mothers will throw their babies to without ever knowing who they are,” Dobrusky said. “There just a select few guys that people call in their worst time. It’s kind of honorable to go try to help.”
Dobrusky points to recruitment and retention for a goal as chief. He said NBVFD has come a long ways from eight or nine members
in 2012 to 27 members today. He is proud of a good crop of young firefighters who have signed up in recent years, saying NBVFD has three or four members under the age of 20 and another five between 21 and 26. He estimated that the average age of the 27 members is around 30.
“We have a good group of seasoned guys,” Dobrusky said, “and we got a good group of younger kids that like to come in and train and be here and help clean and keep things tidy and neat. They don’t complain, and they like to go to work. Being fire chief is one thing, but keeping a crew of young guys together like we have now is probably one of the most important things for me.”
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