News

City fire chief resigns

By Lightning Reports, Published: November 1, 2019

The city of Hendersonville announced Friday that Fire Chief Joseph Vindigni has resigned, saying he is leaving for family reasons and to pursue other opportunities. He has served as fire chief since 2016. His resignation was effective Friday, the city said in a news release.

“The decision to make this change has been a difficult one,” Vindign said in a statemnet, “but I feel it is the right decision for me and my family at this time. Having the opportunity to serve the citizens of Hendersonville has been an honor for which I will always be grateful."
During Vindigni’s tenure, the Hendersonville Fire Department has seen notable changes including the development of robust strategic planning processes, improvements in public protection classification ratings, and the award of two SAFER grants. He departs as the city embarks on an ambitious expansion of fire and first responder coverage, with plans to build a Fire Station 3 off Spartanburg Highway and staff it with a new fire company.

“We thank Fire Chief Vindigni for his service to our community and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors,” said City Manager John Connet. “The fire department has seen substantial growth and an increased level of service during his time as chief.”

Deputy Fire Chief James Miller will serve as Hendersonville’s interim fire chief until a hiring process is conducted, the city said.

"That process (for hiring) is we'll discuss it with the city council probably a little bit Thursday night," Connet said. "We're going get into just kind of an evaluation of where the department is. We haven't determined exactly how it's going to go. It's a good time to do an assessment of how department is going."

A process for planning a new fire station, staffing it with firefighters and adding equipment will continue, he said.

"We've got to keep that going, so this is a good chance to evaluate all that," he said. "We've got got a good command staff in place and we we're going to keep going forward."