Bob Wilczek became a firefighter 14½ years ago after suffering his own house fire. On April 25, he reached the next milestone in his career when he was named Deputy Fire Chief of the …
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Bob Wilczek became a firefighter 14½ years ago after suffering his own house fire. On April 25, he reached the next milestone in his career when he was named Deputy Fire Chief of the Owen-Withee-Curtiss Fire & EMS District.
About a year after becoming a firefighter, Bob completed his EMT Basic training. He became an Advanced EMT in 2020. Bob has also served as a Captain for O-W-C Fire & EMS for the past eight years. He described this as an entry level officer position who supervises fire scenes.
When Jason Wagner retired, Bob applied for the Deputy Fire Chief position that Wagner had vacated. Bob said, “I felt ready to move up in the ranks, to do different supervisory aspects.”
He is now second in command behind Fire Chief Travis Serocki. A lot of what he will be doing now is related to training, orientation, and hiring of new firefighters. He will also be able to apply for grants, monitor training attendance, and make decisions on maintenance. Bob said, “This will allow me to be more helpful to Travis. This allows me to be more proactive in ensuring that equipment and materials are in proper working condition and not reactive.”
As part of the process, new job descriptions were created for all officer positions.
Bob said, “The job is different, but I like it.” As Captain his job was making sure everyone at a fire scene was safe. Now he will be looking more at making sure the materials and equipment needed to fight a fire are available at the scene.
Bob said his new position “opens up a lot of opportunities for advancement, but he doesn’t see himself leaving the O-W area anytime soon.”
Congratulations to Bob Wilczek on his promotion.
