FIRE CHIEF named Timothy S. Wall of the North Farms Volunteer Fire Department in North Wallingford, Conn., and Thomas Carr of the Charleston (S.C.) Fire Department as its 2010 Fire Chiefs of the Year. Both chiefs will be honored on Aug. 26 at the opening session of the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ (IAFC) 2010 Fire-Rescue International Conference and Exhibition in Chicago. This is the 15^th anniversary of the awards program.

2010 Volunteer Fire Chief of the Year Timothy Wall is a third-generation firefighter who has served North Farms Volunteer Fire Department for more than 30 years, the last 14 of them as chief. In 1980, he was appointed as a deputy sheriff of New Haven County — the youngest person so assigned in the state of Connecticut — and today he is a Connecticut state marshal.

Wall is a longtime member of the IAFC’s Volunteer & Combination Officers Section (VCOS), serving on its board of directors since the section’s inception in 1994 and as its chair since 2005. Wall has been an effective advocate for raising awareness among fire-service professionals, legislators and the public on the importance of volunteers to the fire service.

“[He] is well-known throughout the state for his work in the fire service,” said Rep. Mary G. Fritz, assistant deputy speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. “Training his men and women to be the best they can be is the very essence of Tim Wall.”

2010 Career Fire Chief of the Year Thomas W. Carr has served with distinction in the fire service for 30 years. He began as a firefighter/paramedic with Montgomery County in 1978 and rose through the ranks to become chief in 2003. There, he led a force of 1,100 career and 1,000 volunteer personnel in serving nearly 1,000,000 residents on more than 100,000 emergency responses a year.

In Montgomery County, Carr led a full-service fire, rescue and EMS department. Programs included communications, community outreach, public information, training, fire-code enforcement, personnel health, wellness and safety, apparatus management and procurement, fire investigations, and bomb squad.

Carr then moved to South Carolina where he was selected to lead the Charleston Fire Department in 2008 — which was reeling from the tragic Sofa Super Store Fire that claimed the lives of nine city firefighters.

“The task of taking the fire department from mourning to recovery was, and continues to be, a monumental endeavor,” said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. in his nomination of Carr. “Chief Carr’s steady leadership, open approach, vision, and personal investment in the men and women of the city of Charleston Fire Department are gently, but steadily guiding the Department to new greatness.”

The 2010 Chief of the Year awards are sponsored by Pierce Manufacturing.