(From left) Lt. Preston Gloede, Asst. Chief Jim Vaughn, Fire Chief Mick Humer, and Battalion Chief Greg Eft pose following their promotion ceremony at Town of Normal Headquarters Fire Station on June 12. (Photo cour

The recent retirement of an Assistant Fire Chief Doug Barnett has led to promotions within the ranks of the Normal Fire Department.

Barnett’s retirement on June 9 followed more than 24 years of service to the department.   He was hired July 20, 1998, and was serving as a lieutenant before being promoted to assistant chief of operations exactly a decade later, on July 20, 2009.

Jim Vaughn, previously a battalion chief on second shift, was promoted to succeed Barnett as  the assistant chief.   Vaughn, a 25-year veteran of the Normal Fire Department, had previously served as battalion chief since 2014. He is one of two assistant fire chiefs serving at Headquarters Fire Station under Fire Chief Mick Humer.

The assistant fire chief position manages department-wide operations, personnel needs, fleet operations, training, and administrative functions, and on larger scale incidents can act as incident command, according to the fire department.

Greg Eft, a lieutenant since 2010, has been promoted to be the next battalion chief of second shift.   Eft is a 24-year veteran of the department.

Doug Barnett

The battalion chief works a 24-hour on duty/48-hour off duty schedule with his shift and handles day-to-day operations of the three fire stations and acts as a shift commander, but also assumes the role of incident commander at more involved incidents, according to the fire department.

Firefighter-Paramedic Preston Gloede was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.   Gloede is a 17-year veteran of the department and will assume his new role at Station 2 on second shift.

The lieutenant is the station officer in charge of a fire station and its personnel and reports to the battalion chief.

The new officers were sworn into their new positions at a ceremony on June 12 at Normal Fire Department Headquarters.