photo by: City of Lawrence

Richard Llewellyn is sworn in by Deputy City Clerk Aliza Bidinger as Chief of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical on Aug. 26, 2022.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical’s new fire chief was officially sworn in on Friday.

As previously reported by the Journal-World, the new chief, Richard Llewellyn, relocated to Lawrence from Everett, Washington, where he served as the assistant chief of administration for the Everett Fire Department. As chief he will oversee the 156 LDCFM employees who work out of seven facilities, according to a press release from Lawrence’s City Manager, Craig Owens.

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.”

photo by: City of Lawrence

Chief Richard Llewellyn’s wife, Holly Llewellyn, attaches the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical badge to her husband’s shirt as Interim Chief Tom Fagan looks on during Llewellyn’s swearing-in ceremony on Aug. 26, 2022, at Fire Station 1, 746 Kentucky St.

Highlights of Llewellyn’s tenure in Everett, according to the release, included 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.

Fagan announced in a press release on Aug. 19 that he was leaving Lawrence to take a position as the chief of the Fire Department in Marion, Iowa.