Steve Sloan, Deputy Fire Chief for the City of Westbrook, completed his classification talk on August 21, 2018. Steve is a native of Cumberland ME where he currently lives, and he is a graduate of Greely High School. During his junior and senior years of high school he worked for the school department on the grounds crew. In his junior year he also joined the Cumberland Fire Department as an on-call volunteer. The initial appeal was that he could leave school when his pager went off, but it’s also “where the fire ignited” his interest in his career.
In 1997 he obtained his EMT license and in 2003 he earned his degree in paramedicine from SMCC. Steve noted that Andy Turcotte, his current boss, was one of his evaluators and failed him on one of his tests! Steve joined the Scarborough Fire Department in 2004 and moved to the Westbrook Fire Department in 2015. He commented that there seemed to be more money available in Scarborough compared to Westbrook, but that the Westbrook Department has learned to be very resourceful as a result of budget constraints.
Steve met his wife Kate, a 911 Dispatcher, when he was in Scarborough. They married in 2012 and honeymooned in Jamaica, a country they love to visit. They have two daughters, Lillian Helen who is now 4 and Emelia (Emma). They have lots of family fun in the summer and particularly love water parks.
During Q&A he noted that EMS became a component of Fire service around 1980. In Westbrook, about 82% of fire calls are for EMS, which is a figure consistent across the US. Fires are historically down in number, but when they happen they are worse. He pointed to current construction techniques as a contributing factor.
Even though he has moved into management, Steve maintains his certification in paramedicine. That requires 72 hours of training every two years. Westbrook uses an online training platform to keep training in-house to avoid outside costs and overtime. He is currently back in school working on his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Admin with a minor in Public Administration.