Q. Does the county fire chief position help reduce fire insurance?

A. That is the intention.

Q. What is your relationship with the station chiefs?

A. I don’t think their jobs will change at all. They’re going to run their stations. I’m here as a resource like any other chief would be. To provide guidance when guidance is needed. To be a sounding board when a sounding board is needed. That’s what I’m here for. They’re going to run their stations just like they’ve always done.

Q. So firefighters and the Emergency Medical Services personnel are cross-trained? They can both do both jobs?

A. Pretty much. The paid EMS employees are dual purpose.

Q. What in Currituck County has the most danger of catching fire? We just had that camper fire in Waterlily that killed three people. Are campers among the most likely dwellings to catch fire?

A. That was just a misfortune. I can’t say that camper trailers are going to be the hottest item to catch on fire. We respond to a lot of car accidents because you know we’ve got a main thoroughfare here. We have wildland fires.

To think that we’re a fire department that responds only to fires is a misstatement. Twenty years ago there were a lot of fires. Since then, through different organizations, the codes people are using, the standards people are setting are much higher. Smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, heat detectors, fire prevention programs that fire departments are putting on tell people what to do.

Q. So a major house fire is a rare thing now?

A. Yes, and I would really like to keep it that way. James, he’s a good fire inspector and by that and the fire departments doing their fire prevention programs I hope there is enough awareness out there.