Popular young shift Lieutenant promotes to Captain role

After a process that saw five extremely talented individuals compete for the position, Forest Grove Fire & Rescue is pleased to announce the promotion of Tony Carter to the rank of Captain.  A local "Grover", the 35 year old Carter grew up here and along with his wife Samantha and their two little boys, they still proudly call Forest Grove home.  After graduating from Forest Grove High School in 1996, Tony came to the fire department initially as a volunteer who wanted to help in his community.  He entered our college student "sleeper" program shortly after that, and gained valuable practical experience living at the fire station while attending Portland Community College and the College of Emergency Services where he completed his coursework in Fire Science and Emergency Medicine, earning certification as an Oregon Paramedic.  During the summers of his college years Tony also worked for the Oregon Department of Forestry out of the Forest Grove Protection Unit working as part of a wildland firefighting crew.  In October 2005 Tony went to work full time for our agency and the promising young man continued to shine, leading the revamp of our wildland firefighting program that eventually saw the purchase of our first ever apparatus that were specifically designed to combat wildfires in our area.  Captain Tony Carter will take the reigns of our C Shift starting on September 1st, where he fills the vacancy of left by Captain Dwight Lanter when he retired earlier this summer after 28 years of service to Forest Grove. 

New C Shift Captain Tony Carter

Though Tony just recently became a Lieutenant, the choice of promoting him to Captain has been a popular one with the firefighters he works with.  Senior Firefighter Ted Penge said "Tony is a great guy to work for, he truly lets his people feel empowered to do their jobs and do them well.  He supports your projects and work without micro managing, and he is fair with everyone he meets, he's an excellent pick for a leader in our department.".  Firefighter Rick Ilg is also excited for Tony mainly because of what he has accomplished during his short time as a Lieutenant "Look at what he's done already, so much positive stuff comes from that man, and I expect nothing else than for him to continue building on things now that he has full charge of his shift."

Tony Carter is the Vice President of the non profit Forest Grove Firefighter's Association, and also serves as a shop steward with the Tualatin Valley Professional Firefighters Union Local 1660. With the promotion of Tony to Captain a vacancy is left in the department at the Lieutenant level.  Fire Chief Michael Kinkade expects to have a process in place in the next couple weeks and to have an announcement in place by the end of September as to who will fill that role.  Due to the confidence that there were adequate in house candidates for these leadership positions, the department did not have to await the hiring of another firefighter so since hiring Jordan Ruiz on July 1st Forest Grove Fire & Rescue has been able to maintain full staffing of all positions in their current fiscal year budget. 

C Shift photo from Captain Lanter's retirement party in July