Fire Chief Kenneth Parks Named Firefighter Of The Year

Fire Chief Kenneth Parks of the Washington Township Fire Department has been named 2006 Firefighter of the Year by the Greater Montgomery County Fire Chiefs' Association. 

During his 35 years as a firefighter, Chief Parks has played a major role in the development of fire and emergency medical services at both the local and regional level.

He received the award at a membership meeting of the Independent Insurance Agents Association of Dayton. The recipient is selected by members of the executive committee of the South Metro Regional Chamber of Commerce. 

For the past ten years, Chief Parks has led a department that services 53,000 residents and covers 32 square miles. He has overseen numerous capital improvement projects, including the replacement or expansion of five fire stations, a fire administration building and fire training tower. As a result of his leadership, the department is poised to receive national accreditation, the culmination of a rigorous five-year process.

“Accreditation places the department among an elite few,” said Township Administrator Gary Huff. “Because of Ken’s leadership, the township’s fire department is well prepared to meet the challenges of the next twenty years.” As part of the accreditation process, he added, the department has involved community representatives in developing a strategic plan that provides the department with a road map for the next five years.

Chief Parks also has been instrumental in many state and regional initiatives. For the past two years he has chaired the Montgomery County Fire/EMS Alliance, a council of 22 fire departments that work cooperatively to improve services and reduce costs. He also has chaired the Alliance Communications Committee since 1999 and played an influential role in improving communications interoperability between departments.

Parks, 57, brings a strong emergency medical service (EMS) background to his job. He joined the department in 1971 as a volunteer emergency medical technician and a few years later, in 1973, was in the first group of firefighters in Montgomery County to complete paramedic training. That same year he was hired by the township as a full-time firefighter/paramedic. Later, he would become the township’s first full-time EMS supervisor.

"Ken is very well respected in the EMS community throughout the state. Because EMS is 75 percent of our business, this has added an important dimension to his professional background,” Huff said. “He has outstanding management skills and a true dedication to the fire service.”