After nearly eight hours of interviews and deliberation, South King Fire and Rescue’s Board of Fire Commissioners offered the position of fire chief to current Assistant Chief Vic Pennington on Tuesday evening.
Pennington, who is currently the deputy mayor of the city of Des Moines, brings more than 44 years of experience in the fire service, with the last 12 served with SKFR. As assistant chief, Pennington has directly worked with current fire chief Dr. Allen Church for the last two years. With than 41 years of paid career fire service in the Federal Way and Des Moines areas, Church announced his retirement from South King on Jan. 1.
Church was hired by Federal Way Fire in 1978 and has “held every possible rank along the way,” he wrote in his resignation letter on Jan. 1. His final day of service will be Dec. 31, 2019.
Pennington was interviewed for the position against two other internal candidates, Deputy Chief Dave Mataftin and Assistant Chief Rick Chaney.