Meet the new fire chief at Central Fire District
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RIGBY — The new fire chief of Central Fire District has 27 years of firefighting experience.
Nic White was previously the assistant fire chief to former Fire Chief Carl Anderson, who retired after 28 years of service.
Anderson’s last day of work was on Tuesday. Click here to read a previous story about Anderson.
RELATED | Central Fire District Fire Chief set to retire after 28 years of service
“We have five fire commissioners for our district and they decide who the chief is. They asked if I’d want to step up, and I said, ‘I’d love to,'” White said.
White started as chief on Wednesday and has looked forward to the opportunity. His assistant fire chief is now Jared Giannini, who was the previous EMS chief.
“It’s always been a dream, a goal. It’s fun to see it come to light now,” White told EastIdahoNews.com on becoming chief.
Goals
Grow the district to match the growing population is a priority for him.
He said he wants to “continue to hire full-time firefighters and get more ambulances in our area so we can provide that service for our patrons here.”
There are seven full-time firefighter EMTs and 70 to 75 volunteers throughout the four stations, which are in Rigby, Ririe, Menan and Lewisville.
White said he would work on getting property rebuilt at the Ririe station. A large fire broke out there in January. The fire destroyed contents inside the auxiliary building, including four fire vehicles. He said he is working with insurance and talking with an architect for a design.
It’s a station he hopes one day could potentially have a full-time crew.
“Part of our plan to rebuild that tender bay that burnt down (is) put in living quarters for growth,” he said.
His background
White was born and raised in Menan and started as a volunteer firefighter for Lewisville in 1997. He began firefighting in his 20s. White is married and has four kids.
He has been a captain for the Menan station and has worked as a firefighter at the Idaho National Laboratory too. He was hired as assistant fire chief in 2018 for Central Fire District.
“Just worked my way up from a firefighter EMT to captain to battalion chief, assistant chief and now the current chief,” White said.
He enjoys what he does and told EastIdahoNews.com what sparked his interest in firefighting.
“My father was a volunteer firefighter for Menan Fire District when they were their own district. … The pagers go off, and I went on some fires with him and just kind of got the fire bug,” White said. “Seeing that he enjoyed it and loved it, just kind of got in my blood.”
He then built his career and didn’t look back. White said one of his favorite things about his job is responding to calls and providing a sense of relief.
“When you respond to an accident or someone’s house and you know them personally, and when they see you, you can kind of see their relief like, ‘I recognize that guy. I feel comfort.’ And so seeing that relief in someone’s face — this is why I enjoy doing it,” White said.
The community
White wants people to know that Central Fire District is there for the community.
“We’re just here to help where we can and mitigate incidents or put out fires or respond to those traffic accidents that do happen,” White said.