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The Dewey Fire Department held an in-house election this week and named their new Chief.

Assistant Fire Chief Cody Meade said Dewey Fire elected Jacob Cox to be the full-time Chief. He said there was a vacancy in the Chief position in March, and Cox stepped in and took the role of interim chief. An overwhelming number of people nominated him for the role of Chief this week during the in-house election.

Aside from the naming of Cox as the new Chief, other changes were made in administrative roles for Dewey Fire. Remaining at Captain for Dewey Fire is Mike Bolinger. Meade said Bolinger did move from the fourth position to the third position on the roster, however.

Pictured left to right is Fire Chief Jacob Cox, Assistant Fire Chief Cody Meade and Captain Mike Bolinger

Mike Black was elected as the new Lieutenant for Dewey Fire this week. Black has served in the fire service for several years. Meade said Black has worked with ambulance services and is currently a firefighter with the Tulsa Fire Department.

Lastly, Jordan Inman will serve as Dewey Fire's Medical Lieutenant. Inman is a Washington County Deputy Reserve, a Bartlesville EMT, and a Dewey firefighter.

Leading up to these changes, long-time Chief Dale Little retired from Dewey Fire, which opened the door for Chad Schueler to lead the department. Dewey Fire lost some guys in the change of leadership, but Chief Schueler brought the department back up to speed. Chief Schueler even brought the department to further prominence before resigning his role.

Dewey Fire has completed a number of accolades ranging from building their roster to 17 trained and experience members, increased their ISO rating to a historic level 3, and has scheduled equipment and building upgrades. They are hosting an OSU-FST FF1 class this summer.

Barry Campbell with the Bartlesville Fire Department is teaching the class that is being hosted by Dewey Fire. Meade said there are approximately 24 students in the class that are taking Firefighter One training. He said seven of those students are with Dewey Fire. They are becoming Firefighter One certified with the State of Oklahoma and OSU.

Meade said Firefighter One is instrumental when it comes to becoming a firefighter. He said it is required by 90-percent of fire departments in municipally paid areas. The Firefighter One skill set teaches knots, ladder raises, hose handling, hose lays, truck operations, communication operations, legalities, scene safety, search and rescue, and much more. From Firefighter One, firefighters can go on and take Firefighter Two, but Firefighter One is the true introduction to the firefighter world.

The next phase for Dewey Fire after the training involves the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association. Meade said they want to look at joining some of the OSFA's committees. He said the OSFA has legislative committees, safety committees, pension committees, and other committees that represent firefighters in Oklahoma. Chief Cox, Meade, Captain Bolinger and Dewey Fire would like to get involved and represent Dewey on a state level.

Meade said he is mostly eyeing the legislative committee. He said he believes the opportunity will be exciting because he has always been interested in politics, civics, and community minded events. As the Assistant Fire Chief, Meade attends plenty of Dewey City Council meetings, speaks with the media, and answers the community's questions through outreach efforts. It is for this reason that Meade wants to get involved in the legislative committee because he would be reaching out to other firefighters in Oklahoma that have concerns about the service they provide while coming up with changes; it would be a community minded position.

In the meantime, Meade said he believes Dewey Fire is doing a great job of building up relationships locally. He said they love having the Bartlesville Fire Department, Copan Fire Department, Washington County Fire and other agencies as their neighbor.

We will have more with Dewey Fire Chief Jacob Cox on Monday.