A familiar face is taking over as chief of the Fire Department.

Former city mayor, Tom Laughren, was officially appointed as the new chief of the Timmins Fire Department at the city council meeting on Tuesday. Laughren was also appointed as the Community Emergency Management Coordinator for the city.

CAO Dave Landers says Laughren brings experience to the table and the city couldn’t be happier with his appointment.

“Tom Laughren has over thirty years of experience as a volunteer with the Whitney brigade,” he said, “and we’re happy to have him to step forward to become our next chief.”

The process of finding a new fire chief started over a year ago when former chief Mike Pintar resigned. Landers says they went out and searched across the country looking for candidates and that’s how they hired the last chief, Norm Beauchamp, who resigned last month. Beauchamp’s probationary periods hadn’t been completed when he resigned and Landers said they had a good idea of who the candidates were.

“We knew what was available,” Landers said, “we had interviewed internally and externally. We had used headhunters to gather potential references and candidates. And so, knowing what was in front of us and the kind of leadership that we feel that we need in this city, moving towards bringing Tom on as the fire chief seems to be the logical next step.”

Landers presented Laughren as a candidate to council and once they got notice of Beauchamp’s resignation, they began the process of bringing him on board.

Laughren officially starts as new Timmins Fire chief on April 23rd. Mayor Pirie says there are three things that Laughren brings to this new role.

“Three things: leadership, leadership, leadership.”

 

 

 

–With files from Timmins Today

Filed under: Local News