There’s a new man in charge of the County Regional Fire Service. Dan Verdun has been promoted to Fire Chief, moving up from his position as Deputy Chief of Rural Operations & Training.
“Dan has been with the County since the expansion of the Regional Fire Service in 2010 and brings a wealth of experience to the position,” said County of Grande Prairie CAO Bill Rogan. “Dan is dedicated to his team and to the County and has demonstrated his commitment to continually improving our Regional Fire Service.”
Verdun has 23 years of experience as a firefighter and has served as a fire chief before. He was the fire chief of Union Bay Fire Rescue on Vancouver Island, B.C., and was with the department there for 16 years.
“I always envisioned and I always hoped I would end my career as a fire chief as well and I’m very proud to say I can do that with the County,” he says.
Thanks to that experience and his time with the regional fire service, Verdun believes his transition into the role permanently will go smoothly. He hopes he will able to continue work to make sure the region is well protected.
“We’ve got fantastic relationships with our partners in all of our outlying stations, just to continue to foster that with them. As this area grows both in population and density, we’re of course as a fire service going to grow and I’d love to be a part of that.”
Verdun officially takes the title of fire chief on Monday, June 25th. The department has been without one since former Fire Chief Trevor Grant took on the role of Deputy Chief of Operations at the Grande Prairie Fire Department.
Bart Johnson remains Deputy Fire Chief Operations for the County. Verdun says they’ll likely be looking to find another deputy in the near future.