Excerpts from foxillinois.com:
The Urbana mayor intends to appoint Kent “Demond” Dade to serve as the next fire chief for the Urbana Fire Department. Dade has served as the deputy fire chief since 2021. He will take over the duties of Fire Chief Charles Lauss, who retires on May 5.
Dade was previously with the City of Quincy Fire Department for more than 20 years, where he was promoted to Deputy Chief of Administration in 2019. He has also been an instructor at the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) for the past four years and is an Illinois Firefighting Medal of Honor Committee member, which is a position appointed by the Governor of Illinois.
In 2021 the Urbana Fire Department added the position of deputy fire chief to its leadership and Battalion Chief Kyle Hensch will be appointed to the vacancy left by Dade.
Hensch began working with the City of Urbana in 1998. He started as a firefighter and moved through the ranks of company officer/ lieutenant (2006 – 2013) and captain (2013 – 2014), before he was promoted to division chief in 2014. He currently serves as a battalion chief managing day-to-day shift operations, He is a licensed EMT-I, and holds a number of certifications related to fire service.
