East County Fire & Rescue names new fire chief

Firefighter Steve Black to replace retiring ECRF Fire Chief Ed Hartin

By Doug Flanagan
December 19, 2024 11:03 am
Camas, Latest News, News, Public Safety, Washougal

Steve Black, a veteran firefihter who currently works as the division chief of training, recruitment and retention for Forest Grove (Oregon) Fire and Rescue, has been named the new fire chief for the East County Fire and Rescue district. (Contributed photo courtesy of Steve Black)

East County Fire and Rescue (ECFR)’s new chief has held firefighting jobs for almost 20 years, but he views himself as a teacher as much as anything else.

ECFR commissioners have approved the hiring of Steve Black, a veteran firefighter with extensive instructing and training experience, as the district’s new fire chief, replacing the retiring Ed Hartin. Black will begin his new job in mid-January 2025.

“One thing I’ve always been, in the fire service or outside the fire service, is an instructor or a teacher or something like that,” Black said. “If I saw someone struggling with a skill, I shared (my experience and knowledge), so I got a chance to appease that part of my brain. One of my favorite things to this day is when I see (my students) helping each other out, teaching themselves, and I’m not even saying anything. I can see them sort of starting to evolve, and I absolutely love it.”

Hartin announced his retirement, effective Dec. 31, 2024, in September. The ECFR commission posted a job advertisement, selected three candidates, and interviewed them on Oct. 31.

“The chief recruitment process (went) well,” said ECFR commission chair Joshua Seeds. “Chief Hartin created a process that allowed us to evaluate the candidates in several ways and got us feedback from a panel of experienced fire officers and administrators and from a panel of our firefighters in addition to direct interviews by the Board.”

Black and one other candidate “were very close, well qualified and highly recommended by both their current supervisors and the firefighters that they supervise,” according to Seeds. After the other candidate received and accepted an offer from another fire district, the Commission offered the position to Black.

“I was absolutely thrilled,” Black said. “I said during my interview that from the time I walked in the doors at the station, I felt at home. It felt very similar to the department that I started with. … I knew there was a really good group of people there, and I’m very excited about the next chapter in my career.”

Since October 2021, Black has served as a division training chief for Forest Grove (Oregon) Fire and Rescue, providing fire, emergency medical, and rescue response to about 35,000 residents.

“(I supervise) all facets of training, whether it’s volunteer, career, drills to sharpen skills, or personal development-type classes, along with all the mandatory training that we have to do,” Black said. “In the recruitment and retention area, I do the hiring processes for the departments. And within the safety area, I work as the safety officer, (serving as a) liaison to the City’s safety committees.”

Black, who also works as a contract instructor for the Maryland-based National Fire Academy, the United States’ preeminent federal fire training and education institution, and as a fire instructor at Portland Community College, said he is eager to bring his training abilities to ECFR.

“I really think that one of the keys to a healthy fire department is training, so I think that my experience will translate,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to training with the folks that are already there. I look forward to them training me. There’s going to be a lot that I’ve got to learn about that particular department and their operations.”

Black, a native of Ontario, Canada, decided to get into the firefighting industry shortly after moving to Oregon in 2001.

“It was interesting, because I couldn’t work for the first year, so that really gave me a chance to do some introspection of where I saw myself,” he said. “I had always kind of thought about the fire service, but I wasn’t sure. A volunteering opportunity opened up at Cornelius, (Oregon), and I got hooked; I just absolutely loved it. I could just not see myself ever doing anything but that.”

Black served as a volunteer firefighter for the Cornelius Fire Department for two years, earned full-time status in 2004, and worked his way up the ranks to the captain position. From 2010 to 2021, he served as a training officer.

“(I love) the thrill of the calls and the idea that you’re making an instant impact in someone’s life,” he said. “One of my favorite aspects of this job is you never know what you’re going to do on any particular day of the week. You could come in and think, ‘OK, today I’ve got a bunch of stuff I’m going to knock out by sitting at my desk,’ and you start doing that, and half an hour later, you’re at someone’s house that’s on fire to help that family and prevent them from losing any more. It’s really dynamic.”

Black said several aspects of the ECFR fire chief job appealed to him.

“The thought of being the fire chief was daunting, but then I started thinking about the new challenges, the different challenges, that I’d be confronted with, and the evolution of that station,” Black said, “and being a part of that, leading those people, really started to appeal to me. A department of that size that’s going through some changes, I’ve seen some of that in the past, I’m experienced with some of that, so I think I would be a good choice to help lead and help get us through some of that transition period.”

ECFR, which provides fire and emergency medical services to about 10,500 people in a 60-square-mile area north of Camas-Washougal, includes full-time, part-time and volunteer firefighters, and responds to an average of 1,100 calls a year on both sides of the Washougal River.

Recently, however, unusually high levels of staff turnover have challenged the rural fire district. ECFR consistently staffs its Fire Station 91 near the Grove Field airport north of Camas, but must close its Station 94, located northeast of Washougal, when the fire district is experiencing staffing shortages.

In August 2024, voters approved a levy lid lift to help keep both ECFR fire stations open and fully staffed, and address the district’s emergency vehicle needs.

“I think the first thing for me is to really look and listen and learn,” Black said. “I don’t want to go in with a bunch of preconceived ideas. Some of the reasons that they do the things that they do now probably come from a really good place, a really smart place, so I don’t want to go in there and just start moving things around, because I think that they’re going to be better suited that way when I haven’t spent any time up there.

“My No. 1 goal, really, is to get up there and learn from everybody that’s involved in the fire service and take that all in,” he said, “and then talk with the senior leadership, see what they’ve had in mind for goals or for change, and evaluate that.”

Black added that he welcomes feedback from his employees, from the veterans to the newcomers and everyone in between.

“I think my philosophy is that we’re all on the same team,” he said. “Yes, we have different levels of responsibility, but we’re all trying to do the best thing possible for the organization. I think that, when we get into those deeper discussions, we really need to listen to each other. There are going to be a lot of demands — the demand for service delivery, adhering to our budgets, and all of that kind of thing. And those are important things to do. But there’s other things on top of that that we can discuss and make sure that everybody’s got a chance to be successful.”

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