It could be inevitable: John Carroll has been named Catlettsburg fire chief.
“I’ve been around public service for most of my life,” he said. “My dad retired from firefighting and I’ve been around fire service since I was 7 or 8 years old. It’s one of those things, once you do it and it gets in your blood, so to speak, it’s hard to shake it.”
Carroll, a Gallipolis native who has lived in the area for more than 20 years, said he was in fire service when he lived in Ohio. He started in Catlettsburg as a volunteer in 2004, then worked part time before being hired into the department full time as a captain in 2009.
“There was about a year that I was not involved (in fire service), but it was one of those things; it was still burning in me,” he said.
While he has taken a few online classes at the university level, Carroll said his career path didn’t require a degree.