CAFD Board approves assistant fire chief

The Cloquet Area Fire District has a new assistant fire chief, a new position board members hope will bring more stability to the department and easier succession planning for the future.

Corey Larson was unanimously approved as the new assistant chief at the CAFD board meeting June 15.

Larson has been with the CAFD for the two and a half years as the district's training officer and firefighter/paramedic, worked in Superior before Cloquet, and has 13 years of experience in the field.

Larson said he likes the fire district idea for problems facing fire and ambulance services across the state and country.

"It really is a great solution when you're looking at surrounding communities and surrounding municipalities and the redundancy of equipment and personnel and resources that go into ensuring proper emergency management and emergency stabilization," he told the Pine Knot in an interview Tuesday. "It's kind of a key part as far as ensuring all our ducks are in a row in emergency response."

The assistant chief position replaces the former district administrator director's job, a position that the district was struggling to fill and which focused almost entirely on the administrative side of things. Larson is working on his master's degree in public administration-emergency management.

Buhs said Larson was the only qualified applicant and has prepared himself to move up in the department. "Everything I've seen so far that he's put his hands on, he's worked to improve and/or make more functional and efficient for the district," Buhs said.

Part of creating the job was to make sure someone is ready to take over when Buhs - who has been with the district 24 years - is eventually ready to retire.

Larson said he's OK with that.

"As of right now, I have a large learning curve and, luckily, Jesse's been awesome to work with," Larson said.

Board members also approved hiring six more paid on-call firefighters.

Mutual aid

Board members approved a revised version of the CAFD mutual aid agreement, which allows fire and ambulance services to lend assistance across jurisdictional boundaries when responses exceed resources, including disasters, multiple simultaneous incidents or a large fire. Buhs recommended the 2012 agreement be updated to allow for discretion in charging fees in circumstances "that are repetitive in nature," Buhs said, explaining that it was a way to make sure other communities aren't using CAFD in place of funding their own fire department. The contract was also changed to make the aid agreements perpetual.

"This agreement offers the liability and operational protections deemed necessary," Buhs said.

In the same meeting, the board also voted to approve changes to the CAFD bylaws, reflecting legislative changes from 2021 that removed levy caps for communities who receive only ambulance service, and for those who receive fire and ambulance service.

New K-9 coming

Buhs shared that following the unexpected death of CAFD's arson detection K-9 Wish, State Farm offered to again partner with the district. He said Jason Maki, the district's K-9 handler, had already met the new arson detection dog, and the two were on their way back from North Carolina last week. State Farm provides the dog and pays for training and travel costs. The dogs are trained to help determine the cause of fires and gather evidence. The closest arson dog is housed in Rochester, Minnesota.