Fairfax City Chief Tom Owens to take over in Frederick County, Maryland.
Read Frederick County, Maryland press release
Read Fairfax City, Virginia press release
Tom Owens, who has been the chief of the Fairfax City Fire Department in Virginia since 2003, moves across the Potomac River to Frederick County, Maryland. The announcement came in press releases today from both jurisdictions.
City Manager Robert Sisson said, “Chief Owens has provided high-caliber leadership to the City of Fairfax Fire Department since he came to the city in 1998.”
Owens had been an assistant chief in Fairfax City prior to taking over the chief’s job. Before that he was the first director of Virginia’s Frederick County Fire & Rescue Department. His career in the fire service in Virginia goes back to 1969.
On February 1, Owens will take over as director of a combined career and volunteer system that has been run since May of last year by Assistant County Manager Barry Stanton. Stanton had no background in fire and EMS when he took over after the sudden retirement of Director Gene Mellin.
In recent years there has been much tension between career and volunteer forces in Frederick County. At the urging of volunteer leadership, county officials rejected a consultants report that called for a reorganization and the appointment of a county fire chief (click here and here).
