This year FIRE CHIEF magazine will celebrate its 50th anniversary. In September 1956, The Volunteer Firefighter debuted to the volunteer firefighting community, then estimated to be around 480,000 nationwide. Five years later and under the ownership of H. Marvin Ginn, the magazine moved from Charlotte, N.C., to Chicago and changed its focus to the growing needs of fire service executives. In January 1967, The Volunteer Firefighter became FIRE CHIEF.

Yes, 10 years is a pretty quick promotion from a “volunteer firefighter” to “fire chief,” but back in the early 1960s, most chiefs came from the volunteer ranks. We’ve had a lot of fun in our office looking through the bound editions of early issues. The yellowed pages have black-and-white photos and only one color — red — was used back in those days. The style of clothing and turnout gear worn brought giggles, and some of the ads portray women differently than those of today.

I first came to FIRE CHIEF in 1986, when then-editor Bill Randleman asked me to write an article about my Dad’s fire department in Lisle, Ill. Since then, I have been writing about the fire service through five sales of the magazine and two tours overseas with my husband’s job.

I returned full-time to FIRE CHIEF in 1998. With the help of a great editorial staff, advertising sales representatives and our editorial advisory board, FIRE CHIEF has grown to include 16 products in its franchise. Just as your job has grown and changed, FIRE CHIEF has worked hard to meet the needs of emergency service leaders with new formats and technology.

We are now in a position to undertake some new ventures. As part of that growth, we are expanding our editorial staff with a new editor, Jake Jaquet, to take over the daily production of FIRE CHIEF and Wildfire magazines. Jake has a great deal of magazine and administrative experience. With the addition of Jake, my role as editorial director will finally allow me to focus more time to research new topics and projects to better serve our readers. And yes, I will continue to write editorials and features.

One new project is Keys to Leadership, a series of conferences that will tackle topics about which our readers want more in-depth information. The first in this series will be Legal Issues, to be held March 30-31 in Chicago. Speakers for this program will include lawyers who are actively involved in fire- and emergency-related topics. For more information, click here.

As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, it’s a good time to look at the past, the present and the future. The past is easy: Bound volumes of Fire Chief record the history of the magazine and the fire service. The present is now: We are at a pivotal moment in the history of the fire and emergency services. The future — aha! I see sparks of hope for the future of the emergency services, and I intend to fan the resulting flames.