Howell Area Fire Authority

com Howell has a new fire chief who brings three decades of experience and leadership, and a love for his local community. The Howell Area Fire Authority Board met Wednesday evening and voted unanimously to appoint Andrew Box as the new fire chief. Box is the current fire marshal for the University of Michigan and brings an extensive background, experience, training, and dedication. 3-miles away, saying he regularly hears sirens and always tries to figure out what’s going on. In 2023, Box retired as Ann Arbor’s Assistant Fire Chief after 26 years of service to the City.

He started out as a firefighter in 1986 in Chelsea, and also did some stints in law enforcement in Saline and other areas but the fire service was said to be his true calling. There were initially 22 candidates who applied. The list was narrowed down to the two finalists - Box and the Chelsea Area Fire Authority Chief Robert Arbini. The board interviewed both last night and each delivered a roughly 10-minute presentation before answering questions from members. When asked by WHMI how he felt about being selected, Box replied “humble, I feel extremely humble.

With the quality of the candidate pool that was involved in the process, going through this process made me want this position even more from the standpoint of being able to add value and serve the Howell community. My family and I live here, we love it here, and I want to serve the Howell community”. There were other fire chief positions recently open in other communities and Box explained he didn’t apply to any of those “because Howell is our hometown and it’s my family’s fire department” and the opportunity presented itself. He said he felt he had qualifications, education, training, and experience to add value to the Howell Area Fire Authority – saying “it’s all about being a servant leader and putting people first, and I’ve demonstrated that throughout my entire career”.

Box was also a fire service instructor and the first training director for Washtenaw County back in 2000. He said “I thoroughly enjoy watching people grow, experience successes, and experience setbacks - which help define us and define them - and see if have resiliency to bounce back. We learn from it together and I really want to apply that here – leading each individual and make sure they’re emotionally and psychologically safe to be themselves and to ask questions and why, and provide them with responsible answers – rather than ‘that’s just the way we’ve done it’.

That’s a traditional response in the fire service. And I understand it, I get it because the fire service is step in tradition and practices and they’re proven and they work. Change for improvement, however, has not been verified or tested and that’s where the uncertainty and apprehension come in - but it shouldn’t prevent us from trying and trying something new. If it works great, if it doesn’t, we can either reevaluate it or drop it and move forward in another direction”. Of note, the Authority is comprised of the City of Howell, Howell Township, Cohoctah Township, Marion Township, and Oceola Township.

Box said he knows it’s a large jurisdiction, but that just brings him back to his first days in the fire service when he worked for the Village of Chelsea. He said he had an equal, if not larger, response district and served just as many municipalities and “that was a lot of fun”. It’s a very diverse response district – with residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and manufacturing areas. Being so diverse, Box said it presents its own unique set of challenges and “I’m always willing to accept a challenge and make it better”. Box added “I will be out in the community and one thing I highly value is relationships and being engaged with the community that I live in and serve in - and now I can say I serve in it”.

Back in June, the retirement of Fire Chief Ron Hicks was announced following 43-year career of dedicated service. Mike Evans was named the interim fire chief. He most recently retired as the Brighton Area Fire Authority Deputy Chief after a 42-year fire service career. There have been community rumblings about issues within the department, and some somewhat recent staffing changes and retirements. Only one firefighter spoke out during call to the public last night – saying they’ve been quiet but now felt it was important to speak up. Below is that statement, which was met with applause from some in the audience: “For past several years we’ve watched this department gradually fall behind in many areas.

The inability to adapt to the changing fire service, combined with the longstanding ‘good ole boys’ mentality, has prevented this department from reaching its full potential. There was once a time when Howell Fire was considered one of the premier departments in the county – unfortunately that is no longer the reputation we carry today. For years when employees questioned decisions or suggested improvements - the response was often ‘because that’s the way we’ve always done it”. Speaking not only for myself but many employees here tonight, we no longer believe that’s an acceptable answer.