The City of Yuma has named John Louser as its new fire chief.
Louser has been serving as acting fire chief since September and has more than 25 years of experience in fire service, most of it has been with the Yuma Fire Department.
He joined the department in 2003 and has served in several roles, including firefighter-paramedic, fire captain and deputy fire chief.
Louser is replacing former fire chief, Dusty Fields, who retired in September after 30 years of service.
Louser said he’s excited to officially be stepping into the new role with the public’s support and support from Yuma’s leadership. He said he’s already begun working on advancing programs within the fire department.
“I was able to get pretty comfortable in the role,” said Louser. I’ve been able to advance some fire department programs, I’ve already started working on the budget for next year. I really treated the acting chief position as if I was going to have the permanent job, I just felt like that was the mindset that I needed to have. Now that I have it, I'm very excited,” said Louser.
Louser said they’ve been working on a lot of initiatives that will come into fruition early next year.
One includes additional team members to help fill staffing gaps.
“We just hired a very large group of firefighters. We hired 16 firefighters and their academy starts in early January. Their academy will last about five months. We should see them on fire trucks and ambulances around June,” said Louser.
The department will also be hiring for a new position soon.
“We are getting a new support services chief which helps with a lot of planning and grant finding. That’s a brand-new position that’s going to come up in the next year and that’s going to be a big help for us on the logistics and planning side,” said Louser.
With Yuma’s population increasing during the winter months due to snowbirds coming into town, Louser said the department is currently focused on responding to emergency calls as quickly as possible, ensuring ambulances are staffed and ready to deploy as needed.
Listen to KAWC's full interview with Chief Louser for the latest updates on upcoming fire department positions and plans for a future eighth fire station.