Rob Frank appointed to take GFD reins Jan. 1

Rob Frank

Greencastle Fire Chief John Burgess will be retiring Dec. 31 from the position he has held since replacing the retiring Bill Newgent on Jan. 12, 2016.

Burgess, who will be moving to City Hall under Mayor Lynda Dunbar to become fire inspector/safety officer, will be succeeded at the firehouse by current Assistant Chief Rob Frank, it was made public Monday.

The new assignment for Burgess was announced by the mayor-elect near the end of the December City Council meeting at City Hall.

“John will be working here,” Dunbar said, “starting a new career as a civil employee at City Hall.”

All other city department heads will remain the same, Dunbar said Monday.

Meanwhile, the 48-year-old Frank will be furthering a firefighter career that began with a four-year stint as a GFD reserve in April 2008. He was hired to the department fulltime in January 2012 and became assistant chief six years ago this coming February.

Frank, who is originally from just outside Poland and is a 1994 graduate of Owen Valley High School, completed his associate of applied science degree in fire science at Ivy Tech last May.

“We probably need to focus more on education for our firefighters,” Frank told the Banner Graphic in assessing department needs, while adding that not only does that show interest in them but better prepares them to do their jobs.

He also hopes to stress physical fitness as well as focus on mental health issues, which have become a major issue for firefighters, as well as cancer preparation since everything firefighters seem to encounter at the scene or in the environment “is giving us cancer,” Frank added.

The incoming chief said he also thinks GFD “needs to do more community risk reduction,” listing CPR education, “stop-bleed courses” and smoke detector drives as part of that assistance for residents.

“This has been our busiest year,” Frank assessed of GFD, “with over 1,600 runs and there’s a good chance by the end of the month we’ll be over 1,700.”

With five firefighters, he said, it can be difficult to get adequate personnel to a fire or emergency scene, especially when multiple runs occur simultaneously.

“I’d like to see us add another firefighter to each shift,” he added of a plan for three six-firefighter shifts.

Another long-term goal would be an additional station or a new, centralized firehouse.

“We’ve been in this building since the late ‘70s,” Frank said, indicating the department is outgrowing its South Indiana Street facility, “and if we add more guys, definitely.”

Noting that with traffic and distance as factors, the fire department can struggle at times to make runs in their prescribed timeframe to the busy East Side industrial complex, Frank envisions a centrally located station “would be best, but where that is, I don’t know. We still go to DePauw a lot.”

Frank, who served in the U.S. Marines and was a supervisor at Walmart Distribution Center, said he and Chief Burgess have “always worked well together.”

“I appreciate the mentorship he gave me,” Frank continued. “He helped me develop my skills and be ready for this position.”

Frank and his wife Dessa, a longtime Greencastle Community School Corporation educator who is currently the art teacher at the high school, have resided in Greencastle for close to 20 years. They have two sons, Ian, who works for the Greencastle Water Department, and Elijah, 14, who attends GHS.