He loves what he does, he said.

“Yeah, it may not be an engineering or computer degree, but I can guarantee you this: I’m 45 years old, and I started this career at 18 years old,” Ruscoe said. “It’s made my family float. I had dinner on the table. My bills are paid. I was not rich. I was rich in love and rich in family. I may not have been rich in green.”

Q. What does a countywide fire chief do?

A. The position is going to be molded by the fire chiefs in the county, the volunteer members in the county, myself and the county government. Everybody’s going to play a role in it. It’s brand-new. It’s like anything else, you don’t just jump into the middle of something and say it’s going to happen this way.

Q. What will be some of the obvious things you will do?

A. Fire prevention, public education is a priority. Training for our personnel is a priority, so we’re all on the same sheet of music.

Q. Will the training change some beyond the routines of each of the county’s fire stations?

A. Each chief will still have their routine that they want their guys to go though. And that’s their business. But yeah, there’ll be an overview.

We’ll bring in some training that could be utilized by all. Some specialized training. There’s a multitude of leadership schools out there. You can’t ever be trained well enough in today’s society.

Q. What are some of the greatest needs for Currituck County fire-fighting services?

A. A bigger and better volunteer base. I couldn’t give you a figure off the top of my head, but everybody, or every station, to meet ISO (Insurance Services Office) ratings has to have at least 25 on their roster. And five additional for each substation.

Q. Does the new station planned for Waterlily have enough volunteers yet?

A. The chief’s priority and my priority will lay in getting a good promotional out there of developing volunteers. We can lead horses to water, but we can’t make them drink. But we have a lot of young people coming out of the schools.