Eagle Mountain officials hire city's first full-time fire chief

EAGLE MOUNTAIN — In the midst of a high-risk fire season, which has already seen an above-average amount of dangerous brush fires, Eagle Mountain officials announced Monday the city has hired a full-time fire chief.

The city selected Rand Andrus, a veteran firefighter with 28 years of experience who is currently the south area battalion chief in Draper. Andrus was one of three finalists from a pool of applicants. He was offered the job Friday.

"I was very nervous at first," Andrus said. "Now I'm excited and ready to take on the challenge. I hope to serve Eagle Mountain well into the future."

Vincent Liddiard, mayor pro-tem of Eagle Mountain, said the city has been working for months to secure a full-time chief.

"With the growing needs of our citizens, we (the City Council) figured this would be beneficial to the community," he said.

The move is the first step in a plan to expand the city's emergency services. Eagle Mountain is the first city in the area to have a full-time fire chief, and the city is working to license its own paramedics.

"We're somewhat isolated out here," Liddiard said, "so having a paramedic service would be beneficial to all the cities in the area. We've got a lot of land to cover, so having a strong public service department is important."

Eagle Mountain and the surrounding towns have already seen a number of brush fires this summer, the most dangerous a 3.5-acre blaze on July 6 that came within a few yards of a residence in the Ranches area of Eagle Mountain. Fire officials for the area are concerned that high temperatures will only make the risk worse.

The volunteer fire departments from the various towns in the area — Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs and Cedar Fort — have strong working relationships that translate into quick responses for fires in the area. Utah County teams are also frequent contributors on the larger blazes.

Andrus said he hopes to make those response times even better.

"When you have brush fires, it takes a lot of these smaller departments working together to contain them," he said. "It helps to have a full-time fire chief available for those types of responses."

Andrus said his first job will be to get the department prepared and staffed for its paramedic license. He said he won't be able to meet with the members of the department until after he assumes the position on Aug. 1 and said it is possible that some members of the department may decide to leave.

"There is the potential for people to leave if the existing fire chief decides to leave," he said.

Eagle Mountain's current volunteer fire chief, Robert DeKorver, could not be reached for comment.

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