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Walch selected to fill Fire Department vacancy

Date: 12/28/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



WILBRAHAM - When Fire Prevention Officer Nick Yarmac retired last year, strategic repositioning of firefighters needed to take place in the Wilbraham Fire Department.

"It was like a chess game," Fire Chief Fran Nothe said. "I had to move an officer to take over the fire prevention position, and one firefighter slid up to become a captain, and that left a vacancy."

That vacancy will be filled by Matt Walch, as long as he passes the prerequisite physical testing and other pre-hiring steps.

Walch was chosen by the Board of Selectmen at their Dec. 21 meeting as the best candidate to fill the position.

Walch graduated from Monson High School in 2005 and the Massachusetts Fire Fighting Academy in 2008. He's currently attending Springfield Technical Community College to earn an associate's degree in fire protection and safety/EMT basic and Springfield College to earn his EMT Intermediate and EMT Paramedic certifications.

He's worked with the Monson Fire Department as a call firefighter and EMT (emergency medical technician) starting in 2003, and became a full-time firefighter/EMT in 2007.

"Being in Monson, we worked a lot with Wilbraham and I only heard great things," Walch said of his desire to work for the town's fire department. "I want to further my career as a paramedic, and I can't think of a better place to do it."

He added that he thinks serving as a firefighter/EMT is a great career because he gets to do something new, learn something new and meet new people every day.

"Matt has a lot of real world experience," Nothe told Reminder Publications. "We unfortunately don't have a mentoring program here, so we needed someone trained and ready to go from day one. It's tough to find people that are both fire and EMT trained."

Walch said he's excited to complete the final steps of the hiring process so he can start working with the Wilbraham Fire Department.