Taylor-Snowflake Fire & EMS Department Assistant Chief Willie Nelson (left) visits with Chief Clint Burden about plans for the newly merged department.

Willie Nelson, better known in Snowflake-Taylor as Bill, has accepted the position of assistant fire chief with the Taylor-Snowflake Fire & EMS Department.

“When I go into a situation really stressful and throw out Willie Nelson, people kind of poke fun at the name,” said Nelson.

He once lived in Snowflake, graduating from Snowflake High School, but he also lived in Guatemala for a time and the locals found it difficult to pronounce Bill, so his brother began calling him Willie and the name has stuck.

Following high school Nelson moved to Phoenix, where he joined the Phoenix Fire Department in 1986. He has been a firefighter for 29 years.

Nelson was not just a firefighter and paramedic, he was in technical rescue and was promoted to captain, where he was on Task Force 1, Federal Emergency Management Agency Search & Rescue Team.

His team was deployed to New York City a couple of weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the twin towers, and was sent to New Orleans to help after Hurricane Katrina.

“9/11 was a life altering experience; it kind of puts things into perspective,” said Nelson. “When we first got there we were looking for survivors. It quickly changed to recovery, no rescue.”

For the last 10 years Nelson has worked in fire investigations. He attended the police academy in 2004 for additional training.

“In December I finish up,” said Nelson of his career with the Phoenix Fire Department, where he investigates approximately 800 fires a year.

Nelson began his career with Taylor-Snowflake Fire & EMS on July 1, but will continue working in Phoenix for three days a week until December when he retires.

He and his wife are empty nesters and have been living in Mesa, where she will stay for a while to fulfill obligations.

“Coming up here, it’s like a whole new challenge; everything’s different,” he said. “There is a whole different approach. I have a lot of learning that I have to do.”

“Things are going really well,” said Fire Chief Clint Burden. “We’ve seen some positive things out of the new plan and can really see some great potential for future growth.

“We are very fortunate to have Bill with us. We’ve got some good things happening.

“Having the second crew here (at Fire Station 2 in Snowflake) has been very positive. We’ve seen some great results.”

Burden noted that they are getting to scenes fast, and both crews working together has been awesome.

“We have so many exciting things to implement and put together,” he said.

“The transition with the merger creates a new beginning for this department,” said Nelson. “This will improve our service to the community, which is the bottom line. The whole goal is to improve our service and ability to serve.”

Nelson said that their approach to past history is, “We respect and honor all the work that’s been done, countless hours, a lot of heart and soul going into the fire service, and we don’t want to not recognize that. We realize a whole lot of effort has been put into firefighting. Going forward things will change, and we’re trying to look forward to the future and how we can improve things.

“We know there’ve been some community challenges, some political challenges; that has no part in emergency services. An emergency should have no borders.

“Everybody wants to do their job and move forward,” said Nelson of the crew he has been working with.

Though a few left when the departments merged, they have two new paramedics, Don Armer and Clifford Maxwell, so now there is a pool of 12 to 14 paramedics.

“We now have opportunity for them to work,” said Nelson.

Burden added, “We have more shifts, not just ambulance now, they wear two helmets, they have more responsibilities and most of them are excited about that.”

“They are all willing,” said Nelson. “It’s figuring out where their strengths are and how they fit.”

Both noted that there will be daily training, adding that every day they take a truck out and work together. “We have weekly topics we go over, and then we’re going to have bigger events where we actually go out and pull hoses,” said Nelson.

“We have the equipment at the stations, we have all the components, it’s now getting the manpower to work together to better our service.”

Burden explained that they are short funded, but added that they have everything they need for the little money they have had. “We don’t have a fulltime engine on duty, but we are utilizing the ambulance crew as an engine company,” he said.

The next step will be to have 24-hour ambulance crews at both stations.