Passing the Torch | New Asheville Fire Chief Michael Cayse

Michael Cayse has only been Asheville’s Fire Chief since the start of the year, but he came here with more than three decades of experience in Cincinnati and, as part of that, working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Asheville firefighters received a pay raise in the new fiscal year budget of nearly 9 percent, but that still puts them behind where they’d like to be. My guest today, Chief Cayse, tells us about the other ways Asheville works to be a department that attracts and keeps talent. We also talk about how today’s fire departments little resemble those of yesteryear, the demands and skills of the job that go well beyond traditional firefighting and Cayse’s thoughts about what his department needs to become a state-of-the-art unit.

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