Elma may not be Oklahoma, said Chief Kenny Ward, the brand-new chief of East Grays Harbor Fire and Rescue, but the people are just as friendly as they welcomed him to the role, beginning just last Monday.
There are, however, some slight differences in the weather that he’s observed, Ward said, as he sat down with The Daily World in a spare moment.
“This feels like a November morning in Oklahoma. No heat and air units, it’s amazing to me,” Ward said in a morning interview at his office in the fire station in Elma. “Oklahoma is absolutely burnt up right now.”
Beginning as a firefighter in 1981, Ward has served as a firefighter and fire chief in departments in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
“I’m from Sand Springs, Oklahoma. It’s a metro community of Tulsa,” Ward said. “In Oklahoma and Kansas, it’s flat. Here, it’s not flat.”
Ward said he interviewed for the position in the spring, and took the chance when offered the job. It’ll be his first fire position in the Pacific Northwest, Ward said. Ward replaces former fire Chief Adam Fulbright.
“This is my sixth fire department and you find people that like what you do and people that don’t like what you do. You just gotta do what’s right and what’s best for the health, safety and wellness of your coworkers — everybody that supports the operations of the department — volunteers, support staff or paid.”
Fire is fire whether you’re in the baking plains of Oklahoma or the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest, Ward said.
“Structure fire is a structure fire, regardless of where you were at in the United States of America,” Ward said. “The challenge here will be the wildland interface.”
The wildland interface is the land between urban environments and wildlands, where brushfires and wildfires can threaten residential structures.
For Ward, his main priorities are tackling issues that every department in the country is facing: staffing, retention and getting volunteers in the door and feeling useful and valued.
“Manning, staffing levels. Getting good qualified candidates to apply and work,” Ward said. “And volunteerism in America is down, horribly. My challenge is to entice folks to volunteer here, give them an environment where they want to volunteer here.”
It’s his first time working directly with a combination department, Ward said, where there are both career staff and volunteers, rather than one or the other.
“This is the first combination department I’ve worked at,” Ward said. “That’s going to be an adjustment for me.”
Ward say he’s going to be working to increase volunteer numbers and the minimum on-duty staffing numbers, which are problems that most every department in the county is grappling with.
“One of my immediate objectives is to find the funding to increase our minimum staffing to three,” Ward said. “Our volunteer numbers are way down. That’s extremely important to smaller departments in the district.”
Ward said he’s excited to work with the firefighters at East Grays Harbor Fire and Rescue, and to learn from their wisdom as he gets used to the art of firefighting in the Pacific Northwest, with its variances from the Midwest.
“They’re great. Very passionate union, which is way okay with me. Both the volunteers I work with and the paid career staff, they’re awesome. They want change,” Ward said. “I’m going to have an all-call dinner, let everyone know who I am, and kinda start tearing down the walls.”
Ward said he’s also looking forward to strengthening links with the community, the city and other organizations in his area of operations, such as Chief Susan Shultz of the Elma Police Department, who handles other aspects of public safety.
“Well, they introduced me to the city council Monday night,” Ward said. “I have met and talked with, on several occasions, Chief Shultz several times. I feel confident that’s gonna be a great working relationship.”
Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.
