By Pat Reavy
The Deseret Morning News
SALT LAKE CITY — Tom Shannon, the assistant fire chief for the Glendale, Ariz., fire department, has been selected to be Salt Lake City’s new fire chief.
Mayor Ralph Becker’s office confirmed the selection Wednesday, as did Shannon in a phone interview with the Deseret News from Arizona.
“My wife and I are extremely excited,” he said of the move to Utah.
Shannon rose through the ranks of the Glendale Fire Department, beginning his career in 1988 as a firefighter, later being promoted to battalion chief and eventually assistant chief.
He earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University and is enrolled in the U.S. Homeland Security Naval Post-Graduate School to obtain a Master of Arts degree in international studies/homeland security.
Shannon was responsible for supervising fire service operations at Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix. He served as a division chief in the Office of Emergency Management. While a battalion chief, his focus was on the department’s heavy operations. He was also on the department’s Hazardous Materials Response Team.
“My career has been pretty progressive in terms of responsibility,” he said. “I’ve had a fantastic experience down there. The biggest thing it’s taught me is the true value of relationships in public safety.”
The communication between state and city agencies, as well as emergency services, usually goes unnoticed by the public until there’s a disaster, Shannon said. Then everyone knows that something is missing if the efforts by emergency responders don’t go smoothly, such as with Hurricane Katrina, he said.
Shannon has a lot of praise for the Glendale Fire Department. He said when he saw the posting for the job in Salt Lake City and started investigating the department and the city, however, he felt he could be a good fit.
Shannon’s first day as new chief will be Nov. 17. His first 12 weeks in office, he said, will be spent making a structured analysis of the department to make sure all resources are being used correctly. But as for immediate changes, he said there isn’t a need.
“There’s nothing broke immediately,” he said. “They’re a top-notch organization, and I’m very honored to be up there.”
Dennis McKone, a 40-year veteran of the Salt Lake City Fire Department, was appointed to serve as acting fire chief in 2007 by Mayor Rocky Anderson, replacing Charles Querry, who resigned in August of that year to become program manager at the Utah Fire and Rescue Academy.
Shannon has two daughters, both attending college in Arizona to become nurses. As for the drastic change in weather, Shannon said he had family who lived in Logan years ago, and he and his wife are outdoorsy people who like to ski.
“We were looking for a place to live that gave us four seasons other than hot and really hot,” he said.
Copyright 2008, Deseret Morning News