Page 30 - InCommand Volume 31

Battalion Chief Steve Kahan
Battalion Chief Chad Morris
Battalion Chief Mike Szafarowicz
Meet the Members
This edition we meet three new members from the Sylvania Township Fire Department, or Sylvania FIRE-EMS.
The department administration had grown from a full-time Chief and Assistant Chief in the 70’s and 80’s, a single Deputy Chief and then a second Deputy Chief were added in the 90’s, but with a retirement and short budget, the Assistant Chief position was left unfilled in the late 2000’s. The department administration had an opportunity to reorganize after a Deputy Chief retirement early this year. This allows the department to maintain 24/7 coverage with a Chief officer on duty (previously the three chief officers were “on-call” for a week at a time to respond as
needed – which meant that chief officer was dedicated to keep his radio
on at all times and stay in Sylvania that week, ready to respond). It also meant the Chief officers would need to live in the district, or very close, to maintain response times. With the reorganization, the remaining Deputy Chief was promoted to Assistant Chief and three Battalion Chief’s positions were created to provide consistent coverage and daily shift management, especially if a Chief officer was promoted in the future that did not live
in the district. This arrangement allows the staff chiefs to dedicate more time to their job duties and less to shift management and a little less to responses.
Meet the three new members of the Sylvania Township Fire Department – Battalion Chiefs Steve Kahan, Chad Morris, and Mike Szafarowicz.
30 InCommand JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020 • www.ohiofirechiefs.org