GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The city of Grand Rapids announced Monday that Dr. Brad Brown was selected to be the new fire chief of the Grand Rapids Fire Department.
READ MORE: Dr. Brad Brown selected as next Grand Rapids Fire Chief
FOX 17 talked with the incoming chief Tuesday about his journey up until this point and his plans for the future of the department.
“When you start out right in the back of the fire truck 20-30 years ago, you never think you’re going to get to that level and may not even want to,” Brown told FOX 17 Tuesday. “My career just laid out a little differently. I spent a lot of time in administration and as I got closer to it, I just realized it might be something I want to go for.”
Brown said he started thinking about possibly becoming fire chief ten years ago.
“I started looking at what table you had to sit at to make the changes and the education I would need and continued that and kept working through the ranks,” he added. “When I got the call, I was very happy.”
He says it’s a good thing for the organization right now to hire internally.
“I think hiring from within, with that succession plan, is very important,” Brown explained. “Back in 2016, we need a fresh look. We needed that outside prospective and Chief Lehman came in and really turned our culture around and right now, we’re in a very positive place.”
Brown plans to go through the ranks over the next several years to see which GRFD employees are looking to grow within the department.
“By going internal, you save that transition time, we have a lot of historical knowledge and the projects are up and running quickly,” he explained.
“Now I’m in a role where I can hopefully make some real positive change and keep our momentum going. The Grand Rapids Fire Department is doing great things and we’re really excited just to keep that going.”
As for the future of the Grand Rapids Fire Department, Brown plans to focus on the infrastructure.
“Building stations. Our infrastructure is old. We haven’t built a station and moved in since 1987, so we’re looking at building a new station along the Division Avenue corridor, a new station down in Kalamazoo district and potentially a new training facility, in addition to trying to keep pace with the 14,000 housing units that are project in our city in the next few years,” he said.
READ MORE: Grand Rapids plans to build new fire station in third ward
Brown wants the Grand Rapids community to know that the department will remain internationally accredited, continue to rely on its values of honesty, integrity, loyalty, teamwork and excellence and employees are going to show up every day and do the best they can.
Brown will start serving as fire chief on May 1.
