photo by: Contributed by City of Lawrence

Richard Llewellyn

An assistant fire chief from Washington state will be the next chief of the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Department.

Richard Llewellyn, the assistant chief of administration for the Everett Fire Department in western Washington, will become Lawrence’s next fire chief on Aug. 15, City Manager Craig Owens announced on Tuesday.

“We felt fortunate to have such a strong pool of applicants,” Owens said in a news release Tuesday. “Through an extensive process, we found that Rich’s career progression and his leadership approach in the field of fire and emergency medical response is just the right fit for where we are today and what we see ahead in our community.”

The chief oversees 156 LDCFM employees who work out of seven facilities. The department handled 14,560 incident calls in 2021, according to Tuesday’s release.

Llewellyn noted in the release that he and his wife, Holly, and their six dogs were excited to be relocating to Lawrence and “to join a team and community that is future-focused and open to developing, adapting, and deploying innovative approaches to safety, health, and emergency response.”

Highlights of Llewellyn’s tenure with Everett Fire, according to the release, include a 2021 launch of the PulsePoint App, starting a grant-funded drone program and coordinating the Snohomish County fire service’s response to COVID-19. In 2020, he completed a master’s program with a management emphasis through Harvard University’s Extension School.

Llewellyn replaces Chief Shaun Coffey, who announced his retirement in November 2021. Tom Fagan has been acting as the interim chief since Coffey retired.

Owens thanked Fagan for his time leading the department.

“Interim Chief Fagan has provided exemplary leadership during this transition and will be a strong partner in the continued success of this department and our organization,” Owens said in the release.

The search committee for the new fire chief included Sarah Plinsky, Douglas County administrator; Bonnie Lowe, president and CEO of the Lawrence chamber of commerce; Lyle Schwartz, LDCFM division chief; Seamus Albritton, LDCFM fire engineer and president of Lawrence Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 1596; Brian Bradfield, vice president of Ancillary and Support Services, LMH Health; and Nelson Mosley, chief of police and director of the Office of Public Safety at the University of Kansas.