Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gurdon mayor appoints Burns as new fire chief

Gurdon Mayor Clayton Franklin announced at City Council Monday Robert Burns, 57, is now Gurdon's official fire chief.

Franklin said, "The 12 men we have on the volunteer fire department took a vote and recommended we make Assistant Chief Burns the new fire chief, replacing Jake McBride, who retired. I agreed."

Burns, who has served on the Gurdon firefighting team since August of 1975, is a 1965 Gurdon High School graduate.

Burns said Thursday he has been acting fire chief since McBride left his post a couple of weeks ago.

Burns is a self-employed carpenter. He aspired to be fire chief 15 years ago "but Jake was chosen then."

Burns said, "The thing I like best about this is being able to help someone save their place.

"I pretty well know the chief's job already, but some of the paperwork to fill out is a little different. That should not be any problem to learn."

Burns said he helped Chief McBride get the ISO rating down for the city by working to meet the ISO inspector's requirements.

As to new projects, Burns said he realizes the city budget is tight right now.

"I plan to work on upgrading our fire equipment with grants."

He said he hopes to increase the 12 volunteers by at least four more.

Chief Burns said the volunteers will continue to meet every Monday night at 6:30 p.m. in back of City Hall.