Huntington , Cabell County , West Virginia

The city of Huntington has its seventh new fire chief in the last four years, but mayor Steve Williams said he hopes this chief will bring more stability to the department.

Williams said, "I expect nothing but magnificent great things from Carl Eastham."

Carl Eastham retired from the Huntington Fire Department in 2011, after 26 years of service. It hadn't been quite a year since Randy Ellis was sworn-in as chief, and while Williams said there was nothing wrong with how Ellis was leading, he felt more comfortable with Eastham at the helm.

Williams said, "I really need to have someone in a position as fire chief to assure it's somebody who I'm not having to try to learn about how they go about doing things. We already know each other."

Eastham was sworn in Thursday afternoon at city hall. He said he's ready to accept the challenges head on. He said, "That's the biggest goal, is to go back to the basics of how fire service is given to the public, and make sure that we're doing everything correctly and progress and get the morale back to where it needs to be."

He said he knows there are some tough economic problems, but they'll tackle them one by one. "The department is strapped for cash like so many other departments, so that's going to be the biggest challenge is staying within budget and making sure everything comes in correctly."

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