GILL — William “Bill” Kimball is the new Gill fire chief, but he’s not a new face at the department.

Kimball, 33, has taken over for former Chief Gene Beaubien, who retired at the end of January after 24 years in the position.

Kimball, who was serving as a deputy chief prior to Beaubien’s retirement, was unanimously nominated and elected by the Fire Department’s Board of Engineers. He is one of the youngest chiefs to serve Gill.

“I’m super excited for it,” Kimball said about his new role.

Kimball, a Greenfield native, is a familiar face across Franklin County as a firefighter in Gill and Greenfield, as well as a part-time police officer in Gill. He studied fire studies at Greenfield Community College and holds a host of certifications as a first responder.

Kimball joined the Gill Fire Department as a junior firefighter at the age of 16. He is the first in his family to be in a first responder position, having been inspired by his high school teacher in Greenfield, Stuart Elliott. Elliott is one of the deputy chiefs in Gill.

In 2013, Kimball became a lieutenant in Gill, then a captain in 2014 before taking time away to work at Greenfield Fire, where he currently serves as a lieutenant. He will continue to serve in Greenfield while being chief in Gill.

Kimball said Beaubien helped him grow as he rose through the ranks from firefighter, lieutenant, captain, deputy chief and now chief. Kimball said Beaubien has been like a “fun dad” to the department in many ways, as well as a role model.

“Throughout the years, starting as a young, immature firefighter and [becoming] who I am now,” Kimball said, “there’s been many times that Gene has been the voice of guidance for me and set me up to where I am now.”

Over the last two years, Kimball said he started helping Beaubien do payroll work and helped apply for grants for both federal and state money, which helps the department maintain updated equipment. He noted that Beaubien also helped the department update trucks and equipment, while also building a large team of 19 firefighters, with half trained as EMTs, which Kimball said leaves him feeling prepared.

Kimball said he’s had the chance to experience working with both a smaller department as a volunteer firefighter and a larger department like Greenfield. He said the experiences in different areas of firefighting help him in Gill, especially handling the high call volume and varied types of calls in a leadership capacity in Greenfield.

“I get more variety of calls and learn from different situations that, if the same situation comes up in Gill, I’m lucky enough to have the solutions to solve them, because I’ve dealt with it before,” he said.

Now that Kimball is leading the Gill Fire Department, he said his goals as chief are to make the position his own, and rely on the ambitious, tech-driven members of his department to advance fire service technology in town.

“I’m just looking forward to kind of making the position mine,” Kimball said. “Advancing any technologies in the fire service that we can that are more cutting edge, so that we can do the job more efficiently and safely, is part of my goals.”

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.