By James Hanlon
Leader Staff Writer
Meet Oxford Fire Department’s new assistant chief: Matthew Majestic. The Oxford Township Board approved his hire at its April 14 meeting, in a 5-0 vote.
“I’m excited to come out there,” he told the township. “I’m hoping that I can be an asset from Day One.”
April 19 was his Day One, and he responded to his first call shortly after arriving. “Emergency calls never care if it’s your first day or last day,” Fire Chief Pete Scholz said. “We look forward getting to know him and learn from his experience of 30 years.”
After former Assistant Chief Dave Creech announced his retirement at the end of last year, the township entered a contract with McGrath Human Resources to help begin the search for qualified candidates. Creech agreed to stay on through the end of February while the search was conducted.
McGrath collected and prescreened the applications, set up interviews and an assessment center. “At the end of the day we tallied everything up,” Scholz said. “The next day (Township) Supervisor (Jack) Curtis, myself and Trustee (Margaret) Payne met via phone and discussed the results of everything and it was our recommendation that we offer the position to Matt Majestic.” He was selected from a pool of 30 applicants.
Majestic spent most of his career since the early 90s with the West Bloomfield Fire Department as a paramedic and firefighter; his most recent rank was captain. Since 2001, he also served as the program manager for the Oakland Fire Training Institute at Oakland Community College’s Auburn Hills campus.
“I’ve never had a bad day coming to work as a firefighter,” he said. “It’s just a wonderful job.”
Majestic grew up in Hamtramck, graduated from Warren’s Cousino High School in 1986 and now lives in Macomb Township.

Snell Promoted
Also in April, firefighter Kevin Snell was promoted to Lieutenant. He will be assigned to the department’s EMS Coordinator position. “I want to thank my family for their love and support throughout my career,” Snell said. “I also want to thank all the crewmates I’ve worked with for their mentorship, their teamwork and their confidence in me to do this job. I look forward to utilizing all my knowledge and skills to aid the EMS service of the Oxford Fire Department in providing the absolute best service to our residents.”
Lt. Snell has been with the department since 2006, and has long served as the president of the Oxford Fire Fighters Union, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 4763.