At the Wood River City Council Meeting on Jan. 6, the Wood River Fire Department promoted former Captain Wade Stahlhut to Fire Chief following the retirement of Brendan McKee a month prior.
Stahlhut started his career as a firefighter at age 17 with his father for the Holiday Shores Fire Protection District.
“Passion kind of took over from there,” he said. “The fire was lit after taking a few classes and an EMT class.”
From there, he returned to his home town of Wood River as a paid on-call firefighter. In 2000, he was hired full time for the Roxana Fire Department, where he worked up his way to Fire Chief before moving back to Wood River in 2005.