Excerpts from the JournalStar.com:
City officials in East Peoria have selected a paramedic to be the next fire chief.
Al Servis, currently a lieutenant paramedic in the East Peoria Fire Department, has been selected from a field of five candidates. He will be sworn in to his new position during a ceremony Sept. 1 at the East Peoria Civic Plaza and replaces former Chief Bill Darin, who retired June 30, and.
Servis has been a member of the East Peoria Fire Department for 22 years, being hired on Oct. 1, 1992. He will be the department’s first fire chief who is a licensed paramedic. He also was the first lieutenant and first assistant chief to attain paramedic certification and served as the emergency medical service training officer for 10 years.
Servis is a U.S. Air Force veteran, having served as a fire protection specialist from 1985 to 1989. He received his associate degree in fire science from Illinois Central College and has 100 hours of college credit toward his bachelor’s degree, which he intends to complete in the spring of 2016.
“The East Peoria Fire Department is held as the premier fire and emergency medical service in the area,” Servis said in a prepared statement. “The Peoria Emergency Medical Services office has praised our department for years and has used us as a standard for other agencies to follow. The dedicated men and women of this department are some of the best I have worked with both in fire and EMS over the past 30 years.”
Also promoted was Veronica Marmitt to the permanent position of lieutenant. She will be East Peoria’s first female officer.
