Allen announces departure from fire marshal position

The VZC Fire Marshal’s Office will be entering a new era as early as today, with longtime fire marshal Chuck Allen announcing his decision to step away from the position to pursue a new job and the VZC Commissioners Court calling a special meeting for June 23 to discuss an agenda item listed as “consider to ratify the decisions made in June 20, 2016 meeting to hire Fire Marshal, EMC and OSSF-DR.”

On June 15, Allen posted a message to the community on his VZC Fire Marshal Facebook page announcing the move effective June 17.

The message read, in part, “Over the past 25 years, I have dedicated my life to public safety to the citizens of VZC. Ten years ago, I was afforded the opportunity to become the County Fire Marshal/Emergency Management Coordinator. I did not take the task lightly and began an aggressive approach to making things better in this great county in which we live in.

“In October 2007, I began my law enforcement career at the VZC Sheriff’s Office as a criminal investigator. I was promoted about two years after that to the patrol division as a supervisor. I continued to perform the FM/EMC duties, while working full time at the sheriff’s office.

“In 2011, the county offered me the newly created position of FM/OSSF/EMC/Code Enforcement position. I created the office from the ground up and have made a significant impact on things in the county. While it is not where I would like it, I can say we are much better than we used to be. Over the past 10 years, I have been involved in multiple large scale and complex emergency responses/drills in VZC and the East Texas region. I have observed deaths, injuries, and destruction as a result of natural, man-made, or human error disasters. 

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