Ohio man hired as new Palmer fire chief

PALMER — After a long, exhaustive search, Palmer has hired a fire chief.

John McNutt is set to take the reigns of the department at the end of may. He is a 12-year veteran firefighter who will come to Alaska from Whitehouse Ohio, a community near Toledo.

In Ohio, McNutt is the assistant fire chief for an Air National Guard base and a captain with a local volunteer fire department.

The Palmer chief’s position has been vacant since Dan Contini, who served as chief for 40 years, retired at the end of last year.

Jon Owen, the city’s director of public safety, said the interview process was tough with a cadre of talented applicants vying for the seat. Applicants included Homer’s fire chief and Bruce Axtell, who has filled in for Contini since his retirement.

“It got to where the decision was made based on who would be the best fit for our department rather than on just qualifications, because we had four very qualified people who were applicants,” Owen said.

In the end, McNutt won out and, Owen said, and he will be a good fit.

“John displays a combination of humility and leadership,” Owen said. “He has a military bearing and just a quiet confidence.”

Reached in Ohio, McNutt, 30, said he’s been a firefighter all of his adult life but hasn’t worked outside of Ohio. His dad is the fire chief in the volunteer department where McNutt is a captain. McNutt said he’s excited about coming north and plans to set out driving on May 11, aiming to start work May 20.

What excited him, he said, is, “The whole new experience, new job. Getting out on my own. Just the excitement I guess.”

Owen said McNutt is certified through the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress as a firefighter II; an aircraft rescue firefighter; a fire officer I, II, III and IV; a fire instructor I, II and III; a fire inspector I and II, and a rescue technician I.

McNutt said his experience with fire includes everything from house fires to aircraft fires to wildland firefighting.

“My wildland and what you would consider wildland firefighting in Alaska would be different,” he said — Ohio is flat; Alaska is not. “Around here we call them brush fires.”

Also, he said, as an assistant chief with the Guard he’s done a lot of the administrative work he’ll be asked to do in Palmer.

“Some of the things will be a little new as far as the grants that you can put in for,” he said. “As an Air National Guard firefighter for the state of Ohio you’re not allowed to do such things.”

Reached late Friday afternoon, Axtell said he was, “disappointed but the panel did a bang-up job monitoring the interviews.”

By “panel” he referred to the board Owen convened to conduct the interviews and select a candidate. Members included Owen, the chief of the Palmer Police Department, the borough’s deputy emergency services director and some Palmer firefighters.

Axtell said he’d been told that the board had some very intense discussions about the decision. Owen, for one, said Axtell was a close contender.

“You know, it’ll be new for me and new for him and there’ll be some adjusting for all of us,” Axtell said.

But he plans to stay on as the department’s second-in-command and even for a few weeks during McNutt’s transition.

“So he can, you know, learn the city’s way of doing things and do all those kinds of things before we throw him to the sharks.”