Phinney In Line To Be Fire Chief

DAYTON – Rick Turner has been the face of Columbia County Fire District 3 for nearly 20 years, but as of January 1, 2017, the chief will return to full-time farming and leave firefighting to the next generation of heroes.

Taking his place as chief will be lifelong Dayton resident Jeromy Phinney. Monday was Phinney's first official day as assistant fire chief. He will shadow Chief Turner for the next 22 months, learning the full-time job of running this 45-person department with its four paid staff, 41 volunteers, and dual operations of firefighting and emergency medical response.

"Jeromy has been a tireless volunteer and has worked many, many hours and gone to a lot of training," Turner said. "And because of all that, he has the respect of everybody in our fire department. In my opinion, he was the natural person to choose to take this department to the next level."

Until this week, Phinney worked as a building official with the Columbia County Planning Department. He had been there for about 10 years. Before that, he worked in construction. He graduated from Dayton High School in 1993 and lives in Dayton with his wife, Amber, and two children ages 1 and 12.

Phinney started as a volunteer with the City of Dayton's Fire Department in 1999. In 2000, when the city and county joined to form Fire District 3, Phinney stayed on. He's been a captain and a deputy chief, but has always worked in a volunteer capacity. Now he's taken the plunge and will carry on in Turner's place, making the fire district his career.

Turner, who was selected to fill outgoing Fire Chief Steve Carlson's big shoes in 1996, has always been a half-time fire chief; he and his family have continued to work the Turner farm.

"Now it's time for this department to have a full-time chief," Turner said. "Our intent is for Jeromy to be the next fire chief."