Biloxi Veteran Picked to Head Calif. Fire District

Sept. 08--LINDEN -- After a yearlong search, the Linden-Peters Fire Protection District has appointed Kirk Noffsinger as the new fire chief to begin Sept. 17.

After a nationwide search to replace retired Fire Chief Vic Solari, Noffsinger was selected from among 35 qualified applicants to lead a fire protection staff of 12 employees and 10 reserves. They serve about 5,500 residents in a mostly rural and agricultural 127-square-mile community east of Stockton.

Noffsinger has been working at the Biloxi Fire Department in Mississippi for about 20 years.

Noffsinger began his career in fire protection in 1991 as a firefighter and has worked as a fire station captain, department deputy chief of training and deputy chief of operations.

He also has had his fair share of dealing with natural disasters.

"For the last two weeks he's been pretty busy and wet, because he was right in the middle of Hurricane Isaac," said Larry Crabtree, the senior consultant of Crabtree Consulting Services LLC, which was sought out to help the district find a chief.

Crabtree said out of the 35 applicants, Noffsinger had all the qualities they were looking for in a chief.

"He was the one that has the experience and the personality," Crabtree said. "He is low-key, articulate, experienced and a people person."

Copyright 2012 - The Record, Stockton, Calif.