{"id":30074,"date":"2023-12-20T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-fire-chief-pledges-to-build-on-legacy-of-previous-chiefs\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:09:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:09:59","slug":"durango-fire-chief-pledges-to-build-on-legacy-of-previous-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-fire-chief-pledges-to-build-on-legacy-of-previous-chiefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango fire chief pledges to build on legacy of previous chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Randy
Randy Black is pinned with a new badge by his wife, Kathy, during a pinning ceremony held Monday at Durango Fire Protection District Station 1. Black was named as chief in September. (Shane Benjamin\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Randy Black, incoming chief of the Durango Fire Protection District, was pinned with a new badge Monday during a pinning ceremony at Station 1 in Bodo Industrial Park.<\/p>\n

Three previous chiefs \u2013 Dan Noonan, Allen Clay and Hal Doughty \u2013 gave short speeches and offered words of wisdom and encouragement to help Black in his new role.<\/p>\n

Black, 53, said any successes he achieves will be built upon the foundation laid by the previous chiefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t thank them enough for the organization that I have the honor to be able to lead,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n

Noonan, who served as chief from 2007 through 2015, said he had an office right next door to the office of Mike Dunaway, who was the previous chief. They both had the same view looking out their offices. Noonan said he didn\u2019t think much would change once he became chief. But he warned Black that the view became very different, referring to the new and heightened level of responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored to have been part of this organization, and I\u2019m honored that you\u2019re carrying it to the next level,\u201d Noonan said.<\/p>\n

Clay, who served as chief of the Animas fire district before it consolidated with DFPD, said the fire department has come a long way since the 1970s when he started in the field. He encouraged the DFPD board of directors to support Black as chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the guy that makes everything happen down here on the ground,\u201d Clay said.<\/p>\n

Doughty, the outgoing chief who served in the top role for about seven years, said neither DFPD nor the community has benefited more from someone as prepared and experienced as Black to lead the organization.<\/p>\n

Black has been running the department since June when Doughty took a medical leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely looking forward to seeing what you\u2019re able to accomplish,\u201d Doughty told Black.<\/p>\n

He reminded Black to take care of his employees first and foremost, \u201cbecause you can\u2019t take care of the public without taking care of the people that work for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black\u2019s wife, Kathy, pinned the chief\u2019s badge on Black\u2019s shirt, and his son, Ben, pinned him with new collar pins. Karen Barger, president of the DFPD board of directors, delivered the oath of office.<\/p>\n

Black was chosen by the DFPD board of directions in September from a pool of 20 candidates who were identified during a national search.<\/p>\n

Black has volunteered and worked with DFPD in various capacities for 33 years. He was born and raised in Colorado and is a Fort Lewis College graduate.<\/p>\n

He said he plans to play a greater role in community engagement, seek solutions to perpetual funding woes, and focus on retention and recruitment efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re certainly wanting to become more engaged in more levels of the community, and that\u2019s everything from social groups, to the chamber of commerce (and) economic development alliance,\u201d he said after the pinning ceremony.<\/p>\n

He said the DFPD has come a long way in 30 years, from three separate fire agencies to a consolidated district that covers 325 square miles and serves a population of about 53,000 people. It is now the second largest fire department on the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to grow and evolve as an organization as our community gets bigger,\u201d Black said. \u201cWe\u2019re no longer a small fire department, and there are some growing pains that come with that as we transition from a small organization into a mid-size organization. \u2026 We need facilities that meet that need. We need staff that meets that need.\u201d<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

outlines vision for greater community engagement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1480,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-fire-protection-district","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80955,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30074\/revisions\/80955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30074"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}