Ready to respond

AL GILLESPIE

NOR/VIEW--North Las Vegas has recently appointed Fire Chief Al H. Gillespie. His Fire Helmet shown is on display in his new North Las Vegas office. Wednesday, March 16,2005--View photo by shelly donahue NOR/VIEW--North Las Vegas Fire Chief Al H. Gillespie sits in his office at North Las Vegas fire station. Wednesday, March 16,2005--View photo by shelly donahue

Just weeks after moving to the city, new North Las Vegas Fire Chief Al Gillespie said he already feels at home.

"I've been very blessed," he said during a March 16 interview at his new office inside Fire Station 51. "Without question, my coworkers, city government employees and people in the community have made me feel welcome, very much a part of the community."

Gillespie took over the management of North Las Vegas' six fire stations March 7, after a quick move from Augusta, Ga., where he also served as fire chief. He decided to make the move because North Las Vegas seemed like the perfect fit.

"The opportunity came up to help build a department to match the community's needs," Gillespie said. "We wanted to be near the West Coast, find a community to work in for five to 10 years. Also, the weather is nice."

So Gillespie -- who replaced recently retired Fire Chief Jim Stubler -- and his wife of 30 years, a neonatal clinician, leased a nearby home, packed up their belongings, and headed west.

Gillespie has plenty of experience running city fire departments. He served in the Vancouver, Wash., Clark County Fire District for more than 18 years and was chief of the Yakima, Wash., Fire Department from 1998 to 2002, when he accepted the Augusta position.

He's a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer Program from the National Fire Academy and of the Kennedy School of Government summer program at Harvard University, which he attended on a fellowship in 2003.

It has been a distinguished career so far for the 52-year-old, who started his professional life as a meat cutter in the small town of Longview, Wash.

"I started working behind an old-style meat case with sawdust on the floor," Gillespie said. "My father was in the fire service. I saw what Dad did and started volunteering. The pay was really low when I finally went to work as a firefighter."

Gillespie will be paid an annual salary of $115,000 at his new gig.

While working in Augusta, Gillespie was in charge of 19 fire stations -- three times the North Las Vegas total.

"I'm used to a much larger organization," he said.

That experience may work to his benefit because Gillespie now heads the fire department for the second-fastest growing large city in the nation -- after Gilbert, Ariz., and just ahead of Henderson -- with a population of 170,000, up 45 percent since 2000.

The North Las Vegas Fire Department provides emergency services over 80 square miles and handles about 18,000 calls a year.

Two new fire stations are already in development: Station 57, to be located on Azure Avenue near Statz Street, and Station 58. The department employs 148 people.

"The North Las Vegas Fire Department is one of the finest in the nation," City Manager Gregory Rose said. "We are excited to welcome (Gillespie). His experience, leadership and vision will benefit our fire department and complement our management team."

The new chief said his first order of business on the job will be "to do a lot of listening."

"I'm just getting to know the organization, finding out what their needs are," he said. "We want to develop a strategy to deal with growth. Growth here is so acute, we have to get on top of it."

Then, Gillespie said, he will focus on bringing North Las Vegas service providers together.

"We want to do the best we can for the citizens," he said. "We will link with the police department, the public works department and all other city departments."

And Gillespie said he looks forward to the future.

"I'm just happy to be here," he said. "To be part of a community and an organization with such amazing potential."