BEACON – The City of Beacon’s first full-time career fire chief has retired, and the city is looking to hire a new one.
Gary Van Voorhis served as chief for about 10 years.
Mayor Lee Kyriacou said the department is transitioning from a hybrid force of more volunteers than career firefighters, but that is changing.
“We previously had a much bigger volunteer fire program, but due to the decline in volunteers nationally, it has shifted to more of a full-time career staff and he was the first chief of that career staff as opposed to one of the volunteers and moving up the ranks as we traditionally did it,” the mayor said.
In recent years, the career staff has risen from 12 to 16, including the department’s first female firefighter and the larger career staff provides for four full-time firefighters on duty around the clock, Kyriacou said.
