SOUTHWICK – During Monday night’s Select Board meeting, the board announced that there are three finalists for the vacant Deputy Fire Chief’s position in the Southwick Fire Department.
Although the three candidates names can’t be announced yet, they’ll each be interviewed at a Select Board meeting on June 26, starting at 5:30 p.m.
The Select Board discussed the Deputy Fire Chief process. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
The review process for applications started in May and during that process, candidates were interviewed. After that, the candidates went through a scenario-based assessment, which included fire, medical, and inter-personal skills scenarios.
This position is new to the department. According to Chief Russ Anderson, they’ve had a Deputy Fire Chief on the call force in the past, but never on the career force. The difference is that on the career force, the Deputy is involved in the day to day operations and management of the department. The Deputy on the call force is a volunteer position.
In the application, which first became available in March, the qualifications needed include having a Massachusetts Paramedic Certification, a firefighter I/II certification, a minimum of seven years of structural firefighting, and at least five years of experience in a fire service supervisory role.
“We definitely want the best possible candidate and that’s the critical part of the re-structuring as we move to ALS (Advance Life Support),” said Anderson in May.
The Deputy Fire Chief will also be a paramedic and one of their main responsibilities will be to handle the EMS (Emergency Management Services) operations within the department.
