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Fire Chief Passes The Helmet By Karen Holt Bennion
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New South Jordan Fire Chief Andy Butler (right) is sworn into office by City Recorder Anna West, as friends, coworkers and family look on.
hris Evans, who has been South Jordan’s fire chief for 13 years, has hung up his hat. He said goodbye to friends and coworkers at a retirement dinner on Dec. 12, and is now looking forward to less stress and more time for travel and family fun. Evans’ wife, Diana, works for West Jordan City, but when she’s home with him she already notices a difference in her once-busy husband. “This is a whole new world for him,” she said. “I absolutely, positively love seeing this fun, happy side of him.” Evans’ 31-year career actually began in West Jordan in 1983 as a parttime fire fighter. He was promoted to a full-time public safety officer in two years. He served in many positions while in West Jordan, including patrol officer, SWAT medic, fire lieutenant and fire captain. One major impact he had on the department was when he became the first full-time training officer and developed and used a 13-week recruit training academy. This included an in-service training program and a firefighter safety and survival course. He made the move to South Jordan in the fall of 2001, where he went to work devising and implementing new programs as the operations battalion chief. Between grant writing, developing the city’s SWAT team, managing the
Fire Chief continued on page 4
“I didn’t know you had to keep up with the Joneses and where other cities are at.”
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