NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Fire Chief Steven Beer has been in Hutchinson almost seven years now, having joined the department in April of 2017, following the retirement of Kim Forbes. He is pleased with the progress the agency has made over those years.
"I think we've been able to have a positive impact on our organization, the community, our neighboring partners that we work with throughout the county," Beer said. "It's all about tearing down walls and building bridges. That's the mindset that we all have, is to do that. Being internationally accredited, being an ISO Class I Fire Department, I think those are some of the draws for some of these younger individuals."
Having a healthy department also includes staffing.
"I'm happy to say, we have zero openings," Beer said. "That's a good thing for the community and for us when we have that. That doesn't happen overnight. You've got to change that culture. You've got to change that culture. It takes years to do that. I think we're in a good spot right now as an organization."
Part of that is the use of data to make decisions on where to put resources so that response times can continue to get shorter as materials in homes become more and more flammable.
"We're a totally data-driven organization," Beer said. "That's what I like to do. I just submitted the final year end report for 2023 to the city council here this week. We had a problem with some software, actually extracting the data out of the system, but we finally got everything put together. My job is to make sure the council has the data to make informed decisions. I want to try to take the emotions out of the equation when they try to make a decision."
The call data from the department is what drove locating the new large fire station at 23rd and Main.
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