East County Fire and Rescue’s new chief has been a firefighter for two decades, but he views himself as a teacher as much as anything else.
Fire district commissioners hired Steve Black, a veteran firefighter with extensive instructing and training experience, as the district’s new fire chief. He will replace Ed Hartin, who is retiring effective Dec. 31. Black will begin his new job mid-January.
“One thing I’ve always been, in the fire service or outside the fire service, is an instructor or a teacher,” Black said. “One of my favorite things to this day is when I see (my students) helping each other out, teaching themselves, and I’m not even saying anything. I can see them sort of starting to evolve, and I absolutely love it.”
Commissioners interviewed three candidates for the chief position in October.
Black and one other candidate “were very close, well-qualified and highly recommended by both their current supervisors and the firefighters that they supervise,” commission Chair Joshua Seeds said.
“I was absolutely thrilled,” Black said. “I said during my interview that from the time I walked in the doors at the station, I felt at home.”
Since October 2021, Black has served as a division training chief for Forest Grove, Ore., Fire and Rescue, which provides fire, emergency medical and rescue response to about 35,000 residents.
“In the recruitment and retention area, I do the hiring processes for the departments. And within the safety area, I work as the safety officer, a liaison to the city’s safety committees,” Black said.
Black, who also works as a contract instructor for Maryland-based National Fire Academy, the United States’ preeminent federal fire training and education institution, and as a fire instructor at Portland Community College, said he is eager to bring his experience to ECFR.
“I really think that one of the keys to a healthy fire department is training, so I think that my experience will translate,” he said.
Black, a native of Ontario, Canada, decided to get into firefighting shortly after moving to Oregon in 2001.
“I had always kind of thought about the fire service, but I wasn’t sure. A volunteering opportunity opened up at Cornelius, Ore., and I got hooked; I just absolutely loved it. I could just not see myself ever doing anything but that,” he said.
Black served as a volunteer firefighter for the Cornelius Fire Department for two years, earned full-time status in 2004, and worked his way up the ranks to the captain position. From 2010 to 2021, he served as a training officer.
“One of my favorite aspects of this job is you never know what you’re going to do on any particular day of the week. You could come in and think, ‘OK, today I’ve got a bunch of stuff I’m going to knock out by sitting at my desk,’ ” he said. “And half an hour later, you’re at someone’s house that’s on fire to help that family and prevent them from losing any more. It’s really dynamic.”
The agency, which provides fire and emergency medical services to about 10,500 people in a 60-square-mile area north of Camas and Washougal, includes full-time, part-time and volunteer firefighters, and responds to an average of 1,100 calls a year.
“I think the first thing for me is to really look and listen and learn,” Black said. “I don’t want to go in with a bunch of preconceived ideas.”
Black added that he welcomes feedback.
“I think my philosophy is that we’re all on the same team,” he said. “Yes, we have different levels of responsibility, but we’re all trying to do the best thing possible for the organization.”
