Fairview Heights Fire Chief to Retire; New Incoming Chief in Training

by Randy Pierce

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Succeeding his predecessor who accumulated over 40 years of dedicated service, John Winters has been undergoing training since Monday, November 4, to fill the position of chief for the Fairview Fire Department which serves much of Fairview Heights.

Winters has been shadowing long-time Fire Chief Bryan Doyle as part of the transition, the former coming to the local area after having served in a similar position in Silvis, Illinois located in the west central region of the state commonly referred to as the Quad Cities area which consists of Rock Island and Moline along with two cities across the Mississippi River in Iowa, Bettendorf and Davenport.

Born in Moline and raised in Rock Island, Winters began his career in emergency service with the fire department in Silvis in February of 2005. He was named as emergency management director in Silvis in 2023 and has taught in subject areas such as hazardous materials and national incident management systems as a member of the Illinois Fire Service Institute staff at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana since the fall of 2018.

Additionally, having served as an instructor for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, Winters is currently the president of Division 39 of the state’s Mutual Aid Box Alarm System group and previously was hazardous materials coordinator for it.

His resume also includes receiving a chief fire officer designation from the Center for Public Safety Excellence, a not-for-profit 501©(3) corporation headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia that helps high-performing fire departments and emergency services professionals in their efforts to continuously improve.

A member of the board of directors for the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association, Winters serves as chairman of its volunteer and combination officers committee.

His educational background includes an associate degree in applied science – fire service officer and an associate in arts degree from Blackhawk College in Moline along with a bachelor of arts from Western Illinois University in Macomb.

Winters has certifications from the Office of the State Fire Marshal in the areas of chief fire officer, incident safety officer, hazardous materials incident command and technician, fire service instructor II and advanced firefighter technician.

Doyle joined the Fairview Fire Department, so named without the word “Heights” included in its title because its formation pre-dated the incorporation of the city by a few decades, in October of 1983 and held the offices of lieutenant and captain before being hired as the Fairview-Caseyville Township Fire Protection District’s first deputy chief in July of 1994. His time as the local chief will formally end on November 30.

After being promoted to the position of assistant chief in October 1997, Doyle next became fire chief, following the late Don Feher who had retired at that time then passed away in 2021, having held the department’s highest position for nine years through 2006 following duty as assistant chief for 16 years under the late Bernie Rowan.

An instructor on the staff at the Illinois Fire Service Institute since 2000, Doyle will remain in that position. He served as president of the board of directors of the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association in 2015 and will continue his relationship with that group as a member of its funeral and legislative committees.

Praised extensively by the men and women who are members of the Fairview Fire Department upon announcing his forthcoming retirement, Doyle has reached well beyond his local community in sharing his knowledge and expertise related to the emergency response positions he has held.

An example of that devotion to public safety occurred several years ago when he was headed north on Illinois Route 159 near a railroad crossing where Swansea and Belleville share a border, coming upon the scene of an accident where one vehicle had rear-ended another at the traffic light there.

While police had already been summoned and were en route, Doyle could have simply moved on in his vehicle and headed home for an evening meal at this time of the day, since both of those cars involved in the crash were in the same lane of the two designated for northbound traffic, leaving the other one open. But instead, he stopped and sprang into action, making sure of the well-being of the drivers and occupants, directing traffic around the crash site and otherwise acting in a manner similar to what he would have done if actually called to respond.

The driver of the car that was struck from behind in this situation was Randy Pierce, journalist/photographer for The Tribune of Fairview Heights.