Ariz. man named new fire chief

GEORGETOWN — After receiving more than 90 applications for fire chief, city manager Paul Brandenburg said Georgetown officials found the person who fit exactly what they were looking for. John Sullivan, the 41-year-old assistant fire chief of the Golder Ranch Fire District near Tucson, Ariz., will take over the job in January.

“When we were trying to identify who our next fire chief would be, we wanted someone young, aggressive, innovative, a leader, a good communicator with good budget experience,” Brandenburg said. Sullivan has been managing a budget more than twice the size of the budget for the Georgetown Fire Department, Brandenburg said.

His reference checks raved about him, saying that he was respected, a quick learner who was easy to talk to and “had an ability to scan the environment quickly,” Brandenburg said.

Sullivan replaces former Fire Chief Robert Fite, who left to become fire chief in Grand Prairie. Sullivan, who is married and has two daughters, has 19 years of experience in the Golder Ranch Fire District.

He said his family likes Georgetown. “We just fell in love with this town and the people,” he said.

He said working in Georgetown appealed to him because its demographics are similar to Golder Ranch, a 210-squaremile area that includes two senior living communities and the city of Oro Valley. There are more than 130 firefighters in the Golder Ranch Fire District and eight fire stations.

Georgetown has more than 40 firefighters and five fire stations. Sullivan, who has a master’s degree in fire service administration from Arizona State University, said his first goal is to “sit down and talk” to Georgetown firefighters and to promote public safety.

“Let’s get the wet stuff on the red stuff,” he said.