The Crestwood Fire Department has a new fire chief. 

Chief Ryan Harrell took up the mantle of leadership on Jan. 2 and had his official swearing-in at the Jan. 13 Board of Aldermen meeting. He says that his first few weeks in Crestwood have been spent listening to and learning from community members and city administration on how the fire department can improve.

“It’s been really informative. I don’t want to come in here and change too much, because everybody’s been doing such a great job here,” Harrell said. “It’s really just more tweaking things and adding my touch, seeing if there are any areas we can improve on. The first couple weeks have just been sitting around, listening, meeting everybody, meeting people in the community and seeing what their expectations are.”

Harrell replaces former Fire Chief Leo Meyer, who retired on Oct. 3 after 51 years in the Missouri fire service.

Before coming to Crestwood, Harrell spent 26 years with the Clayton Fire Department, where he served as battalion chief. He also handled logistics, recruiting, media relations and more, even undergoing regional disaster response training, which came in handy when a tornado swept through St. Louis County — including Clayton — last spring. 

“It was really pretty surreal,” Harrell said about the tornado. “You train for it all the time, but I was proud to be a part of the group that took that on. We came together as a team to set the bar for the response, to the point that we were being solicited by other agencies in the area to set up their structure.”

As for the jump from Clayton to Crestwood, Harrell first emphasizes the similarities — the size of the region, the type of response. But he admits that Crestwood is a different demographic, and it certainly has fewer high-rises than his former stomping grounds.

“We do have other challenges,” Harrell said. “Fortunately, I have a great staff here, a great group of firefighters. Former administration has done a fantastic job as far as setting a foundation for me to build from here.”

Moving forward, Harrell hopes to modernize systems at the Crestwood Fire Department, including record-keeping. He also hopes to be more data-driven in the department’s decision-making, believing this philosophy would allow them to be more fiscally responsible and strategic in how they’re using resources. He says they are currently updating the systems that would allow them to track those metrics.

Some community members have raised concerns to Harrell that he might cancel Movie Nights at the Fire House or other similar events, but Harrell expects the Crestwood Fire Department will be engaging with the public more than ever before. He assures the community, “I wouldn’t expect to see anything taken away anytime soon.”