As of Monday morning, Humboldt officially has a new fire chief.
Mike Kwasnica, who had been appointed by the City of Humboldt as interim fire chief after the December retirement of longtime chief Norbert LeBlanc, was hired permanently as Humboldt's Fire Chief on January 17.
His first day on the job was January 21.
"I'm looking forward to the future," Kwasnica told the Journal on his first day, after admitting he was excited to secure the position.
"It's a challenge," he stated about why he wanted the job.
Kwasnica had been the district deputy chief, working for the Humboldt Fire Department (HFD) for the past five years - the only other paid employee on the department apart from the chief. The rest of the firefighters are all volunteers.
Though Kwasnica said he had a good idea of what the fire chief's job would entail before starting as interim chief, he has been learning some new things.
"There's a lot of little things that Norbert did, that he just did himself because he'd been doing them for 20-some years. Now I'm learning those little things, little details here and there," Kwasnica smiled.
Now that he is officially the chief, Kwasnica is looking at doing some research and possibly making a few changes to the department over the next year, including adding a couple of officer positions.
"I'm going to review what we have, what other fire departments our size are doing, and talk to other fire chiefs," he said. "Saskatchewan's got a really good network of fire chiefs. If I need any assistance, I have lots of people to turn to for help."
Becoming fire chief wasn't something Kwasnica ever dreamed of when he first joined the HFD a decade ago as a volunteer.
"It's kind of surreal," he admitted, "to move from what I was doing before, when I joined the department as a volunteer, to move into the chief position. I was not expecting it 10 years ago. But I feel very honoured to be able to do it, and work with the guys here. We have a very good group of firefighters who are all very supportive."
