Firefighters provide 24 hour fire protection to St. Johnsbury. There are a total of 10 full time members known as the career staff. The command staff and rank are  as follows.

Chief - Troy Ruggles
Assistant Chief - Will Rivers 
Captain - Bradley Reed
Captain - Kevin Montminy
Firefighter/ADO - Michael Pelow 
Firefighter/ADO - Troy Darby
Firefighter/ADO - Aaron Martin
Firefighter - Phil Hawthorne
Firefighter - Probationary Firefighter Andrew Rugglew
Firefighter - Probationary Firefighter Ryan Pelow

Each member is assigned to one of three shifts (A,B,C) and work a 24 hour shift beginning at 0700 hours followed by 48 hours off equalling a 56 hour work week. This allows for three members assigned to each shift with the Fire Chief working Monday - Friday days. When a member is out on leave the shift runs short. This means that more than 60% of the time there are only 2 members on duty.

All career division firefighters are certified to Firefighter 2, Emergency Vehicle Driver Operator, National Incident Management System, Rapid Intervention Team, EMT-Basic, Hazardous Materials Operation, and Technical Rescue Operations. This certification involves more than 600 hours of class time and hands on training. In addition, several members have individual specialties including fire instructor, juvenile firesetters program, firefighter safety and survival, incident safety officer, and fire alarm technician.

A Shift
Captain Kevin Montminy
Firefighter/ADO Troy Darby
Probationary Firefighter Ryan Pelow

    B Shift
Assistant Chief Will Rivers
Firefighter/ADO Aaron Martin
Firefighter Phil Hawthorne

C Shift
Captain Bradley Reed
Firefighter/ADO Michael Pelow
Probationary Firefighter Andrew Ruggles
 

The retiree's are made up of both the career and call division members wh have retired from active duty.

Chief Retired - Russell Gray

Firefighter/ADO Retired - Richard Reed

Assistant Chief Retired - Jay Whitcomb

Captain Retired - Sandy Black

Call Firefighter Retired - David Hawkins

Call Firefighter Retired - Kenneth Potter

Call Firefighter Retired - David Brown

Career Firefighter Retired - Tom Barrett

Assistant Chief Marc LaRose

Call Firefigher Retired - Steven Somers

Firefighter/ADO Retired - Mark Harpin
 

David Eliassen

David Eliassen grew up in northern New Jersey and gained great respect for the fire service as a child in Weehawken where he lived next to the firehouse. Dave was hired onto the Teaneck NJ Fire Department and served for 8 years before he moved to Florida where he was hired as a police officer. His interest in fires never left him and he sought out a career in private fire investigation. Eventually he moved to Vermont to be closer to the rest of his family and opened Green Mountain Investigations at one time operating out of the block above Bruce Corrette and Associates facing the SJFD. He has since retired and continues to fire buff New York City and the Northern New Jersey area and all fires he can get to in the Northeast Kingdom. Dave has been a loyal supporter to the SJFD for many years and was named an honorary member of the fire department in 2008.

Al "Scoop" Dunn

Al is a lontime resident of St. Johnsbury with a great interest in the fire service and sports. Al could be seen for years calling the games for St. Johnsbury Baseball, and walking to nearby fires to check out the scene. Al's nephew Mike Keenan was a St. Johnsbury Firefighter at one time but has advanced his career in Alaska where he remains in the fire service as command staff. Al remembers and shares many stories of some of the great fires of St. Johnsbury and is known around the firehouse as Al "Fire Commissioner" Dunn. He was employed for years by the St. Johnsbury Academy as a Greenie and attended many sports games including football games as a member of the chain gang. Today he is retired and enjoys going to baseball, basketball, and football games at the SJA. Al became the first ever honorary member of the St. Johnsbury Fire Department in 2007.

P8 - Firefighter/ADO Eugene McDonough

Firefighter McDonough was a Manchester-By-The-Sea, MA native who relocated to St. Johnsbury after graduating from high school. He had a background in the culinary field and was past owner of Reed Supply Co. in St. Johnsbury. He was hired onto the full time staff in the early '90's and was promoted to Acting Duty Officer. Gene is the only member in the history of St. Johnsbury Fire Department who lost his life fighting a fire.

THE FIRE

Late in the night on Friday september 4th, Fire Alarm received a call for a fire at the PMI Warehouse in Lyndonville. On arrival they called for mutual aid from St. Johnsbury and several other towns and reported a heavily involved fire in the building. St. Johnsbury reponded with Engine 3 with Captain Rivers, Firefighter Richard Reed (retired), Firefighter Brown, and Firefighter McDonough. They went to work in a defensive position outside of the building manning a 2.5" hoseline and were directing the stream into the building. The large doors on the front of the building closed on them preventing the water from getting onto the fire so Firefighter McDonough re-opened them. When he returned the doors closed once again so he re-opened them a second time. When he turned to walk back to his position a collapse occured causing the extrior wall to tip out, and the parapet constructed of brick crashed down on McDonough. During the collapse the fire severed a propane line and directed fire over the top of the debris pile but members bravely rushed in to dig him out. They removed Gene and administered CPR until Lyndon Rescue could arrive to continue treatment and transport him to NVRH. Despite valiant efforts by the firefighting crew, EMS and the hospital, his injuries proved fatal.