It's An Odd Jump for A New Chesterfield Fire Chief

The hiring of Tom Vineyard Saturday as the new fire chief for the Monarch Fire Protection District seems peculiar. When Monarch's current board of directors did not confirm it.

Vineyard comes from the old Wellston Fire Protection District, a union-controlled district that changed its name from Wellston to Mid-County when creditors began confusing the fire district with the City of Wellston, which has been on the verge of bankruptcy for the past 20 years.

The district built a new firehouse at the western edge of its boundary in Pagedale when there were too many break-ins at the Wellston firehouse and firefighters’ cars while they worked.

But the math doesn't add up for the Vineyard hire. He oversees one fire house and 20 firefighters/paramedics—no ambulances. (Ambulance service is provided by Christian Northeast Hospital.)

Monarch has five firehouses and 130 firefighters/paramedics/supervisors and full ambulance service.   

Monarch firefighters are trained with specialty equipment for airport emergencies in Chesterfield. Monarch is prepared for water rescues with the Missouri River on its western border. Monarch has one of the largest shopping malls in the St. Louis area.

I'm not sure Mid-County Fire District even has a McDonalds.  

Everyone with Mid-County, including the chief, is a member of the International Association of Firefighters Association Local 2665. At Monarch, only those below the rank of battalion chief are union members.

There are a large number of older buildings in Mid-County that do not meet modern fire codes, plus a lot of empty buildings and houses. Firefighting in the Wellston-Pagedale area is just that—battling fires.

In the Monarch District, the vast majority of calls are medical-related. There are very few working fires, thanks mostly to newer housing, buildings, and tougher building codes.

These two fire districts could not be more different in any way. It seems to me that there are much better places to find a new fire chief for a district like Monarch.

First, how about a command officer from within the Monarch district? Not going to happen—since Monarch trustees just fired the entire command staff.

Secondly, a new fire chief could be a division or deputy chief from a different, large fire department—someone from a large metropolitan fire department—like St. Louis, Kansas City or Des Moines, for example. Or how about someone from a city like Columbia or Springfield?

But a new chief from a fire district that operates one fire truck with no medical background—is unbelievable.    

Additionally, the Monarch board just fired the entire command staff over discrimination against women firefighters and paramedics.

Here is the percentage of women working as firefighters/paramedics in West County and City of St. Louis:

City of St. Louis                  45 women of 725          6.2-percent*

West CO EMS & FPD              3 women of 53            5.6-percent

Creve Coeur FPD                    2 women of 55           3.6-percent

Metro West FPD                     3 women of 89           3.4-percent

Monarch                               3 women of 130          2.3 percent

*majority of women City of St. Louis first responders are assigned to the EMS Division.   

There are a number of serious challenges for the new chief at Monarch. There is also serious political and power manuevering among the three board directors.

I wish Tom Vineyard all the luck in the world. But by my math, he doesn’t appear to be the guy for the job.