Columbia Heights has a new fire chief, but he may be a familiar face to many in the community. Lifelong resident Dan O’Brien stepped into the role on Oct. 25, taking over for retiring Chief Charlie Thompson.
His journey into firefighting began as a paid on-call firefighter in 1995 and he was eventually hired into a full-time role in 1999 — the same year outgoing chief Thompson became fire chief. “After joining, it became a passion of mine. I wasn’t one of those kids that chased around the fire trucks, but once I got into it, I thought it was really something.”
One key area where O’Brien will focus is on ensuring the department is adequately staffed. This can be a challenge for any department that uses part time, on-call firefighters.
“Our paid on-call numbers are always fluctuating and we’re a little low now. We’ll be doing a lot of work around recruitment to show people this is a great job. We have a large population of [people who speak] English as a second language and only a few Spanish-speaking people on the department, so talking to those groups, getting them engaged, getting them hired. Having that representation on the fire department helps everything run smoother.”
Another key area for the new chief is to amplify community outreach efforts focused on education and fire safety. “I really want to beef up our community communications piece in the form of getting the word out there and keeping the word out there. Broadly, we have a lot of good fire prevention programming that we could be doing. Getting that geared up will be one of my goals,” said O’Brien.
In terms of his time with Chief Thompson, O’Brien shared a few things he’d like to continue to emphasize. “Charlie always talks about a few important things. Good equipment. Good people, and open the doors for them to succeed, and community involvement. Charlie has introduced me to so many people over the past five years. When you come together on a fire scene, those relationships are huge.”
Thompson began his career as the Columbia Heights fire chief in 1999. He left the department in 2005, but returned in 2019 to again serve as fire chief until his quiet retirement this fall.
Last year, CHFD responded to 1,574 medical incidents and 583 fire incidents.