The city of Ukiah introduced its new fire chief Wednesday at a joint meeting of the Ukiah City Council and the Ukiah Valley Fire District board of directors.
“I’m very excited to be here,” Douglas Hutchison told the boards, who had graciously waited an extra 35 minutes for Hutchison’s family to travel from Lakeport so they could attend his badge-pinning ceremony.
Most recently the chief of the Lakeport Fire Protection District, Hutchison lives in Lake County with his family, and given that Highway 20 was closed Wednesday afternoon because of a crash near Blue Lakes, many motorists struggled all that afternoon and evening to travel between Mendocino and Lake counties.
Hutchison was hired as the new UVFA chief last month after what city staff described as “an extensive recruitment and evaluation process.”