The Kiawah-Seabrook Exchange Club welcomed St. John’s Fire District Chief, Colleen Walz, to the Seabrook Island Club on Wednesday evening, August 16, 2017. Chief Walz has led the St. John’s Fire District for fours years after spending 26 years with the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire. Her career started as a Firefighter and she retired with the rank of Deputy Chief. Her husband is a retired Battalion Chief and her two sons continue to serve as Lieutenant and Firefighter in Pittsburgh.
As Chief of St. John’s Fire District, Colleen leads a team of 135 employees, 7 stations and a 27 vehicle fleet. She is responsible for planning, organizing and directing fire department activities, strategic planning, managing payroll and employee benefits and implementing policies. Chief Walz works with community leaders and regional partners to ensure exceptional service delivery to the community. She has increased staffing on all apparatus and each piece of equipment is now certified through DHEC and staffs an Emergency Medical Technician on board.
Since her four year tenure, Chief Walz and her staff have dealt with numerous fire calls, disasters, vehicular accidents, 100 year flooding, an ice storm, tornadoes and Hurricane Matthew. Chief Walz remarked that all of these occurrences have tested St. John’s Fire District’s strategies and strengthened their capacity to support their mission to serve our local communities.
-Submitted by Lori Leary