Serves as chair or co-chair on multiple state and federal committees and as a member on another half dozen committees, lectures on public safety communications and radio interoperability, participates in several full-scale and tabletop disaster-response exercises, and runs a 50-member fire department — all in 2007.

This would be an impressive list of activities for any committee or business. Throw in a family of five and a full-time job and you get a taste of how Ellington, Conn., Fire Chief Michael Varney spends his time. And just how does he find the time?

“I probably get asked that question daily,” Varney says. “I don't have a good answer other than I'm a busy guy.” He goes on to say that he doesn't believe in serving on a committee unless he can fully participate. “If you want to make a positive change, you have to get involved.”

It was that effort to bring positive change to the fire service that found Varney the winner of the 2007 Fire Chief of the Year in the volunteer and combination department category.

“He absolutely stands out because he's a doer not a talker,” says Heather Burford. She's chief of the Ridgefield (Conn.) Fire Department and has known Varney through the Connecticut Fire Chiefs Association since 1997. “He's probably the quietest at the meeting or in a group of people. He takes everything in and listens then turns it into action. He has the ability to work with all types of agencies, state police, elected officials or career fire departments.”

Varney's interest in the fire service began at an early age and some of the small twists and turns in his career prepared him to be a progressive fire chief.

“My father was an Ellington volunteer firefighter,” he says. “I used to tag along with him whenever I could to the firehouse.” At 16 he joined an Explorers program that put him in an ambulance and became an EMT. In college, Varney began studying nursing, but later switched to information technology. He joined the Ellington department in 1984 and was elected chief in 2000.

“I have deep roots and strong ties to the community,” Varney says of Ellington. And that longevity, he believes, has helped him be a better fire chief. “I plan on staying here for a long time so I want to make it the best place to live.”

About the time he joined the department, Varney began working for the state of Connecticut as a computer operator. He moved up to technical analyst and is now a project manager coordinating the state's GIS and communication interoperability efforts. All of this has dovetailed nicely with his role as fire chief.

“In the fire service, we have been able to work toward the use of technology,” Varney says.

And he's been at the forefront of that move toward technology. As early as 2001 he was chairman of the Connecticut Fire Service Technical Advisory Committee, which maintained state and county radio communications plans and equipment. A year later, another committee he chaired designed and purchased a common radio system for command and control and trained all state emergency response agencies on using the radios. In 2005 he took a leadership role in a series of disaster exercises that included attacks on communication systems. That year he also initiated a committee to create a data communications network to connect all Connecticut emergency responders — all at no cost to local departments. And he is currently chairman of the Statewide Public Safety Radio Interoperability Committee.

“That is something that spans between my responsibilities at work and as a local fire chief, to make sure that we have good interoperable communications,” Varney says. “Without good communication, it doesn't matter how much equipment and training you have. Without good communication … you really can't function.”

However, he says that most issues dealing with communication are administrative, not technical. “The first thing that has to happen is that leadership of different organizations have to understand that they need to talk to each other,” he says.

That message has not been lost in Connecticut. Timothy Wall is chief of the Wallington (Conn.) Fire Department. He's a third-generation firefighter with 26 years in the department, the last 10 as chief. He and Varney were peers as they rose through the ranks. He says that chiefs across the state recognize Varney as the expert in communication issues and as someone they can call for advice. “When he speaks, people want to listen because he knows what he's talking about,” Wall says.

But don't get the impression that Varney is a one-trick pony. In addition to his work on interoperability, he has co-authored the state's mass-decontamination plan, served as CFCA president, sat on the governor's homeland security advisory council, co-authored the state's volunteer stipend policy, been a contributing author of the International Association of Fire Chiefs' strategic plan for national mutual aid systems, and co-developed the nation's first multi-discipline, multi-hazard communication leadership program — which the Department of Homeland Security has distributed to more than 20 states.

From all this, one of the areas dearest to Varney is education. This is evident in his getting all of Ellington's officers certified at the Fire Officer I or II level, the first volunteer department in Connecticut to do so. Varney says this certification improves the department and reflects on the commitment of its officers to work for that certification.

“Part of that training has to do with supervision … not just tactics on how to put out fires and respond to emergencies,” he says. “That's where we've benefited from that training. They are more than just tacticians; we run the organization like a business. They have supervisory and management skills that they may not have gotten from their personal lives or occupations.”

Michael Stupinski is Ellington's first selectman. He's been involved in town administration for 25 years and has known Varney all that time. He says that while Varney's predecessor was a good chief, Varney has moved the department forward in terms of training, equipment and facilities.

For Varney, the most job satisfaction comes when all that training and preparation comes together for a successful outcome at an incident. He saw this come into play in 2003 when an ammonia leak at a juice-processing plant drew more than 100 responders from 70 emergency organizations in the small hours of the morning. Residents were evacuated and shifting winds made the situation more volatile.

“Basically, it was the worst-case scenario for that plant,” Varney says. “People stepped up and took responsibility and everybody worked well together. There were no egos; it was very unified. We tested a lot of plans that had been written but never exercised.”

In the end, there were no injuries and no permanent damage.

It was mentors early in his career that taught Varney the value of education. And although no one mentor stands out, Varney says he was able to cherry-pick areas of knowledge from each to help him advance.

But Varney has reached the point in his career where he's the one with knowledge to share. Since 1996 he's served as an adjunct instructor and program developer at the Connecticut Fire Academy. He's worked in hazardous materials, fire officer training, communications, information technology and photography at the academy.

Yet he knows the importance of mentoring outside the classroom. He works with his officers and delivers training within the department. And, he says, he probably learns more from teaching than he did from being taught.

Burford, who has less than two years under her belt as chief, says Varney has been a big help to her as a new chief. “I've watched him closely as he's developed his department,” she says. “I've tried to emulate him.”

One of Varney's characteristics that Burford admires is his quiet demeanor. It's a term often repeated by those describing Varney. Burford says he's a listener, someone who takes in all the information he can before speaking. And when he does speak, people listen.

Wall echoes her description. Varney is soft-spoken, clear and to the point. He gathers his information, knows how to act and communicates calmly no matter the situation, Wall says. It is a trait Wall has tried to incorporate into his management style.

Varney says that trait has helped him as a leader and one he tries to develop because he's always respected it in others. And he says some of that characteristic is simply part of his nature. “I've always been that way, but I've also moved toward that trend as I've gotten older.”

Varney traces his passion back to when he joined Explorers. He believes that program to be one of the best recruiting tools the fire service has. In fact, he's expanded the junior firefighter program into a full Explorers program. But programs like that cost money and money is hard to come by. Varney sought and won a $61,500 SAFER grant last year and dedicated much of that money to Explorers.

“Mike is a nice example to young firefighters coming into the service,” Wall says.

Whether a future Ellington fire chief will come out of that program is impossible to say. If one does, Varney has some advice.

“You always think you know what the job is until you get there,” Varney says. For him, the biggest change in becoming chief was shifting his focus. “When I was a deputy chief or captain, my focus was always on the internal end of the department. When you are chief you are more outward looking regarding how to get resources to do things better, to guide the department to make it better.”

That outward focus has given Varney a reputation in Connecticut as a results-oriented go-to guy. In fact, since 2002, he's brought grants worth nearly half million dollars, which Stupinski says wasn't happening before Varney became chief. If his department needs something, Varney finds a way to get it, he says.

“If you need something done, you pick up the phone and call Mike,” Burford says.

Protecting Small-Town Connecticut

Ellington is a northern Connecticut town that spreads across 34 square miles, 64% of which is open land. Its 15,000 residents occupy about 6,000 households.

Fire Chief Michael Varney is a lifelong Ellington resident and says that although the community is mostly agricultural, but urban sprawl is setting in. Town statistics show the population has grown from 11,000 in 1990 to 15,000 in 2006. It is expected to reach 17,000 by 2011. About half of Ellington's residents are employed in construction, mining, manufacturing or the trades.

Michael Stupinski is Ellington's first selectman and has logged about 25 years in town administration. He says another challenge for the fire department is a single-strip airfield that is often used by parachutists. They conduct jump training and the department has had to perform some interesting rescues from novice jumpers who drift off course and get tangled in trees.

To protect this community, Varney has a department of about 50 volunteers housed in one central station in the town's center. The department recently leased space for a substation to reduce response time in the southern section. The department has three pumpers, one tanker, one forestry unit, one heavy-rescue unit, two light-rescue units, one hazmat trailer, and a marine rescue unit.

The town is looking to build another fire station and had the proposal on a referendum ballot in 2006. However, that failed by a close margin, mostly because of bad timing. Taxpayers had just been hit with property tax re-evaluation, which raised taxes for many residents. Connecticut has no sales tax and relies entirely on property taxes.

The initial plan called for issuing about $2 million in bonds to build the new station in the high-growth southern part of town. There are no land acquisition costs because it was donated by a developer. Stupinski says they are revising the station's plan and looking for outside funding to reduce the bond amount. He says it will be 2008 before the town is ready offer voters another referendum. “I don't think it is insurmountable,” he says of the chance for succeeding on the second try.

One of the challenges for EVFD is getting water. A large geographic area is not supported by public water and is fed by wells. As the community grows, the town extends water mains to hydrants where water is available. But overall, Ellington's water supply can run from very good to below average to nonexistent.

“It requires us to be flexible,” Varney says. “Areas of our response district require very different strategies for water supply.”