Excerpts from sj-r.com:

With Fire Chief Allen Reyne’s surprise announcement that he will retire on Dec. 1, attention now turns to who will replace him. The pool of prospective candidates already has been whittled down — foremost by a clause in the city’s contract with the firefighters’ union requiring that the mayor choose the chief from the current ranks. Furthermore, the chief and other top-level fire department appointees must meet minimum requirements per city code that include having at least 10 years of service with the department and having passed the battalion chief’s examination. With the exception of six years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the hire-from-within clause has been in the Springfield union’s contract since it began to collectively bargain with the city.

This brings the list of potential candidates down to 25, including three division chiefs, two deputy division chiefs, nine battalion chiefs and 11 captains who are on the battalion chief’s list. 

Three who applied in 2018 are members of the senior command staff including Division Chief of Operations Jeph Bassett, Division Chief of Training Heather Moore, and Deputy Division Chief of Operations Brandon Blough.

Bassett, a 24-year veteran of the force, is a certified fire investigator who previously served as deputy division chief of fire safety and deputy division chief of operations.

Moore, a 20-year SFD veteran, would be the first female chief in the department’s history. About 95% of Springfield firefighters are men. She already broke a glass ceiling in 2018 when she became the first woman to ever be a fire division chief in the city’s history.

Blough, a 21-year veteran of the department, served as a captain before being promoted to his current position in 2018.

There are three other 2018 candidates still in the department: Jason McMillan, a captain; Jim Price, a senior arson investigator; and Donnie Richardson, a battalion chief.

Another possible candidate is Fire Marshal Ed Canny, a 23-year department veteran who is also the chief of the department’s fire safety division and oversees several programs, including code enforcement, investigations, fireworks safety and public education. He’s been in his current role since May 2019.

Deputy division chief of operations Mike Abbott, a 20-year veteran of the force, could also be in the mix.

All Springfield fire chiefs in recent memory have come from within the department’s ranks.

Tags: Springfield fire chief to retire, Springfield Fire Department