New fire chief elected

First Assistant Fire Chief Danny Rasmussen was elected the new Shelter Island Fire Department chief on April 7. Second Assistant Chief John D’Amato was elected  first assistant and Captain William Anderson III second assistant chief.

Departing Chief William Rowland will step down in June. He became acting chief following the resignation of Earl Reiter in the summer of 2009 and was later elected chief.

Incoming Chief Rasmussen volunteered in 1999, shortly after graduating from high school. He has been a firefighter of the year and has been honored several times for putting in the most training hours. Presenting a proclamation of “Daniel Rasmussen Day” by the Suffolk County Legislature in 2007, Legislator Ed Romaine observed of his service as a fireman at such a young age that “he has just taken to it.”

Chief Rasmussen and his assistant chiefs will be formally installed on June 4 at the department’s annual awards dinner at the Pridwin Hotel.

Chief Rowland is a veteran of the department. In 2008, he became only the third responder in the tri-state area to deploy a special fire suppressant in a working fire on Penny’s Path. The device, pioneered in Europe, had been available only since 2007, and the fire department had purchased one for each of the three chiefs’ vehicles. “As I opened the door,” he recalled, “I hoped to hell this thing works.” It did, eliminating the need to send volunteers into a high-risk situation.