Trustees hire new fire chief
NEW SPRINGFIELD -- Brian Hughes, 44, is Springfield Township's new fire chief.
Hughes, chief of Hartford Township Fire Department in Trumbull County since 1992, will be Springfield's first full-time fire chief. He replaces longtime chief Frank Molnar, who retires Dec. 31.
Hughes' salary will be determined at the township reorganizational meeting next month. He will be on probationary status the first year.
He was hired at a special meeting Thursday by a unanimous vote of trustees who selected him from 15 candidates.
Trustee Shirley Heck said after the meeting that trustees felt that supervising the township's three fire stations and EMS station and more than 80 volunteer members has become a full-time job.
Hughes has worked as a senior paramedic for Rural Metro Ambulance since 1987 and also is an emergency medical dispatcher. He is on the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians.
He is a Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm. While in the military, he was in command of the ambulance service for the Naval hospital in Beauford, S.C.
Hughes also participated in the cold-water rescue of two children out of Mosquito Creek in Niles in 1993.