2011 Employee of the Year
Fire Engineer Kelcey Sass
The 2011 Firefighter of the Year has been awarded to Kelcey Sass, Fire Engineer. Kelcey has been in the fire services for 29 years, 23 of those with the Vista Fire Department, and was recommended for this honor due to his selfless motivation to go above and beyond with little supervision or encouragement required.
In addition to his typical work as Fire Engineer, Kelcey also manages many key projects that enable the Fire Department to run properly and efficiently. He is responsible for the department’s complete Self Contained Breathing Apparatus program, including the training, maintenance, repairs, inventory, budget, testing, and safety checks. Many hours of Kelcey’s lunch, after work hours and non-shift days have been consumed working on this project. This past year, Kelcey played a key role in the City being awarded with a federal grant exceeding $350,000 to purchase replacement breathing apparatus for the department. This resulted in a significant cost savings to the City and provided fire personnel with state of the art breathing apparatus.
Kelcey is currently providing classes to all fire shifts on a driver/operator program he developed. The program is very effective and instrumental, as it allows Fire to correctly document vehicle inspections and driver certifications, greatly reducing driver and city liabilities.
Kelcey’s leads by example and his attitude, ability, knowledge base, work ethic and integrity epitomize what the Vista Fire Department strives for in its employees. Congratulations to Kelcey for this well deserved recognition.