Columbia has hired its next fire chief. Here's who got the job

Columbia has selected its next fire chief after the retirement of Clayton Farr Jr. in April.

Brian Schaeffer, previously assistant fire chief and fire chief of the Spokane, Washington, Fire Department from 2005 to 2024, was tapped Thursday by Columbia City Manager De'Carlon Seewood to lead the city's fire department. Schaeffer starts in the role Aug. 19.

"Brian is bringing invaluable experience to this role," Seewood said. "He has demonstrated his ability to be forward-thinking about priorities and commit to levels of service the Columbia Fire Department continually strives to achieve."

Unlike in previous national searches for a city leadership position, the work was done in-house rather than bringing in an outside search consultant, said Columbia Human Resources Director Kathy Baker last month.

Schaeffer's hiring bucks a recent trend of hiring internal candidates. This has included the Columbia Police Department chief, Columbia Fire Department chief when Farr was selected, Public Works director, IT director, an assistant city manager (prior to November 2023), Parks and Recreation director and human resources director. The trend still tracks with Matt Unrein, who while an outside hire for assistant city manager in February was elevated to deputy city manager in April.

"I am excited to begin this new role in an extraordinary community like Columbia," Schaeffer said. "The Columbia Fire Department is passionate about providing the best service to its community. I am honored to continue to uphold those values and help find innovative ways to protect the health of our residents and firefighters."

During a meet-and-greet last month, Schaeffer outlined his priorities if he was selected.

He described a unique tool he may want to see adopted in Columbia: an AI-driven analytic program on fire response known as Darkhorse Emergency, which was adopted in Spokane.

"It's a deployment tool that allows you take in data from years before. … It's going to response time data," Schaeffer said last month, adding this includes where personnel go, how long it took them to get there and what happened while on scene. "What AI will do is take that and take information similar to what you have with Waze — all the traffic patterns — and make predictions based on future changes."

His initial focus, though, is recruitment, retention, training and resource management, he said.

Despite Schaeffer living in Washington, he has connections to the Central Missouri region.

"I went to school at the University of Central Missouri and the University of Missouri in Kansas City. I have always had a connection to the region as a whole and Columbia. This midwest area really is home," he said in June. "The community is on the precipice of something amazing and I'd like to be a part of it."

Previously: Columbia will have a new fire chief soon. Here are the 4 finalists' top priorities

NOTE: Portions of the story were previously published.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on X, formerly Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia hires Brian Schaeffer as its next fire chief