{"id":16192,"date":"2026-07-06T13:35:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/?p=16192"},"modified":"2026-07-06T13:36:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:36:00","slug":"tom-huntington-named-interim-yakima-fire-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/tom-huntington-named-interim-yakima-fire-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Huntington Named Interim Yakima Fire Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yakima City Manager Vicki Baker has appointed Tom Huntington to be the interim Yakima fire chief following the retirement of Aaron Markham at the end of last month.&nbsp; Huntington\u2019s first day on the job was today, Monday, July 6<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huntington is a senior partner, teacher, and coach with The Referent Group, a company that provides leadership development training to the public and private sectors.&nbsp; He served more than thirty years in the fire service, including more than a decade as the chief of the Richland Fire Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baker is continuing to evaluate next steps to fill the fire chief role on a long-term basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTom has the experience and expertise to provide the leadership the Yakima Fire Department needs during this transition period,\u201d said Baker.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019ll be focusing on supervision and support of department personnel, developing the department budget, advancing key strategic initiatives, and interacting with other emergency service providers and the community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huntington is a graduate of the National Fire Safety Academy\u2019s Executive Fire Officer Program and holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in fire services administration.\u00a0 He has taught leadership in university, academy, and professional settings and has spoken nationally regarding the future of the fire service and public safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Tom-Huntington-Photo-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Tom-Huntington-Photo-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Tom-Huntington-Photo-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Tom-Huntington-Photo-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Tom-Huntington-Photo-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Tom-Huntington-Photo-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Tom-Huntington-Photo-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Interim-Fire-Chief-News-Release.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Interim Fire Chief - News Release.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-f17f1ecf-6eeb-4a3f-b508-612ddcb1b542\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Interim-Fire-Chief-News-Release.pdf\">Interim Fire Chief &#8211; News Release<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/sites\/6\/Interim-Fire-Chief-News-Release.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-f17f1ecf-6eeb-4a3f-b508-612ddcb1b542\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yakima City Manager Vicki Baker has appointed Tom Huntington to be the interim Yakima fire chief following the retirement of Aaron Markham at the end of last month.&nbsp; Huntington\u2019s first day on the job was today, Monday, July 6th. Huntington is a senior partner, teacher, and coach with The Referent Group, a company that provides<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16195,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16192\/revisions\/16195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}