By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
Lifelong Oxford resident Chris Scheer is the newest full-time member of the Oxford Fire Department.
Scheer graduated from Oxford High School in 2016 and became interested in working for the fire department after a friend told him about working as an EMT.
“They were an EMT and they showed me what they did or talked about what they did and I thought it was interesting,” Scheer said. “I saw that Oxford had a class for EMT and I came up and talked to Sgt. [Kelly] Kilgore and he got me into the EMT class. From there I decided I kinda really liked it and I went through the fire academy they put on here.”
Between the department’s fire academy and the paramedic school at Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Scheer became fully convinced that this is what he wants to do. He joined the Oxford Fire Department as a paid on-call employee in 2019.
“The favorite part (of the job) for me is probably serving the community,” Scheer said. “I’ve grown up here for my 23 years I’ve been here. It’s good to see that I can help whoever is in the community.”
Now that Scheer is a full-time member of the department — his first day was on Sept. 7 — he is looking forward to his future with Oxford Fire.
“There’s so many choices if I decide to go up in a career here,” Scheer said. “There are so many different options I can choose from here, so it’s a good starting point if I want to grow here or expand my options somewhere else.”
Chief Pete Scholz is happy to have Scheer on board.
“(Scheer has) been a good employee,” Scholz said. “We’re excited to have him working full time … It’s exciting to have someone come from inside the department as they get a chance to move up.”