Area Fire Chief Retiring

After responding to a tornado and plenty of fatal falls at Starved Rock, Utica Fire Chief Dave Edgcomb is ready to call it a career.

Edgcomb is retiring from the Utica Fire Department May 16^th.  He’s been the village’s fire chief for over 13 years and has been a firefighter for 30 years serving in Oglesby and Peru before moving on to Utica. Edgcomb says he isn’t getting any younger and this feels like the right time.

Looking back at his time, Edgcomb is proud the Utica Fire Department has modernized its dispatching service, worked towards having a full-time EMS staff and settled into a new fire station.  He says he won’t miss the paperwork that comes with the chief’s job.

Current assistant chief Gary Gbur will take the chief’s job when Edgcomb retires.