We spoke with Fire Chief CR Chance on his time at the firehouse and life in Easton.
EEDC: Tell us about you and your background.
CRC: I was born and raised in Easton. I’ve lived here all my life, went to high school here. My regular job is with Easton Utilities–I’ve been there for 31 years, and I’m starting my 34th year with the fire department, which by the way, is 100% volunteer.
EEDC: What’s the road to becoming the fire chief?
CRC: My family has been in the fire department for a long time, and I joined the department when I was 18. I took several classes, worked my way up through the officer rankings. I became fire chief the first time when I was 29 years old. So throughout the years, I’ve actually gone back into the ranks at a lower level and worked my way back up to become chief again.
EEDC: How many times have you served as chief?
CRC: This is the fourth time I’ve been elected. I love doing the job. The people around you are great, and they all do a great job. It’s a real honor.
EEDC: So this is an elected position?
CRC: Yes, these are elected positions. We vote on it each year, and we usually have an agreement to stay on as chief for two years, but you do get voted on each year. I’m in my first year or this round, so if I get elected again, I’ll serve as chief next year as well.
EEDC: How many people are in the fire department?
CRC: We have around 115 total members and about 65 active members. The way it works is that we have a point system for stuff like number of calls, drills, meetings, etc. Active members are required to get a certain amount of points quarterly to keep their active service.
And then the other group is life members, which I currently am. Once you’ve achieved 20 years of service and are in good standing, you become a life member. When you’re a life member, you don’t have to continue with your service standards. But many life members don’t just stop when they become a life member; they continue serving the community and helping out wherever they can. That’s a big part of what keeps our fire company going and why we’ve stayed volunteer for as long as we have.
EEDC: What does a fire chief do?
CRC: Basically, I do a lot of delegating because you can’t do it all yourself. On the fire station side, we have six other Fire Line Officers, and we have regular meetings, training, and we go over different aspects of what we want to train on this month. We try to do at least three drills a month. You always train repeatedly, just for that one time where you may need to use that training.
On the community side, we get requests for fire safety events. We go to schools and daycares and do fire safety there. There seems to be new community events in Easton every year, where the fire department is asked to participate. We help with fundraising and just had our annual golf tournament.
Then we also bring the truck out in public, and the kids can come over and see it and touch it. We’ve been getting a lot of requests this year to stand by firework displays, to have a fire truck on site, and that could be all hours of the night and on weekends.
EEDC: How much equipment do you have?
CRC: We have 13 pieces of equipment, and we operate out of two stations: the one on Leonard Rieck Drive in town and one on the other side of 50 on Matthewstown Rd. Having the station on Matthewstown has helped our response time because we have many people trying to get across 50 in the summertime to get to the beach. With the station there, it helps us get out a lot quicker.
EEDC: Apparently, thanks to American Rescue and Recovery Act, money has been put aside to buy the department a new fire engine. Is everyone excited?
CRC: Yes, we actually have two new engines coming. Usually, engines are on a 25-year replacement plan, but we were able to get a few more years out of one. However, now it’s time.
We’re planning on a little different setup than what we usually have. One will continue to have 1000 gallons of water in it, and then we’re adding another engine where it’s going to be set up with 2000 gallons of water. It will still be a regular first response engine, but we’ll have extra water on it, and it will be used more in the county, where your water resources are limited. We’ll be able to get more water on the scene quickly.
EEDC: Is there ever a time when the stations can relax or are you busy all the time?
CRC: If you look at our monthly calendar, there are two to three nights a week where something is going on at the firehouse, whether it’s a staff meeting, a committee meeting, a fire drill, or us going out to a community event. And then you never know when that fire alarm is going to go off. I think we averaged about 1000 calls a year. So that’s pretty busy for a small town.
EEDC: Since you’ve been doing this for so many years, have things changed a lot in Easton?
CRC: Well, it’s more demanding. The town has definitely grown, in a good way. I love it here because it still has a small-town vibe. But, if you add more people, it creates more calls.
Easton is great; it’s laid back and relaxed. You have so many things at your fingertips. There’s boating for those who do that. I play a lot of golf, and golf around here is nice. You’re only an hour and a half away from the beach. I have never hunted a day in my life, but there is hunting here. There’s just a lot of things to do.
EEDC: Of course, I can’t let you go until we ask you what does the ‘CR’ in your name stands for?
CRC: It is Charles Randolph Chance, Jr. So on my first day at school every year, I stood up and said. ‘please call me CR for short.’ We call it the Eastern Shore initials.
