Joseph Schmidt recently was promoted to the rank of deputy chief for the Mehl-ville Fire Protection District.

Schmidt replaces Steven Mossotti, who was promoted to assistant chief in June. The Board of Directors voted unanimously July 5 to name Schmidt deputy chief.

Schmidt joined the Mehlville Fire Pro-tection District in 1981. During his career, he has held the positions of engineer and captain. He has been decorated with such honors as the Bronze Medallion of Valor and two Phoenix Awards.

Schmidt holds an associate degree in fire protection technology from St. Louis Community College. He has been a resident of the Mehlville Fire Protection Dis-trict for 20 years.

Schmidt has attended the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md., on three occasions and also serves as an adjunct instructor for basic life support in hazardous material incidents. His certifications include emergency medical technician and fire instructor specialist.

At the Mehlville Fire Protection District, Schmidt has served on the Apparatus Committee and is involved with the Com-munity Emergency Response Team — CERT — that trains district residents in disaster preparedness.

Schmidt is a member of Missouri Task Force 1, a federal urban search and rescue team, and currently holds the position of plans manager.

He was deployed to New York City Sept. 11, 2001, and was part of the first federal search team at Ground Zero. He and members of the team subsequently spent 10 days as part of the search and recovery operations at the World Trade Center disaster.

In 2003, he was deployed to Virginia with the task force for Hurricane Isabel.