The New York City Fire Department appointed the first Black chief of its Emergency Medical Services to run emergency medical technicians and paramedics as of Jan. 1, the Daily News reported Friday.
Current Deputy Assistant Chief of Operations Michael Fields will take over the division of the NYFD Sunday, replacing Chief Lillian Bonsignore, the first openly gay female to lead that division, the report said.
"I feel great about the opportunity to serve New York City in this way," Fields, 50, told the Daily News. "And coming in after Chief Bonsignore, those will be some incredibly big shoes to fill."
According to the report, Fields joined the EMS in 1994, two years before the division merged with FDNY, working first in communications, then becoming a medic for the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn in the city.
Fields told the news outlet that he feels good about giving back to the community he was raised in.
"Seeing people you grew up with in bad situations and being able to assist them, that's something I find a great deal of pleasure in," he said. "I like to give back to the community."
During his career in Brooklyn, the Bronx and eventually at FDNY headquarters, where he worked to recruit personnel, Fields met his wife, EMS Lt. Nikola Combs-Fields. Their son is now also an EMT in the Bronx, the report said.
According to the report, he said having a son on the job keeps him "grounded."
"I believe in the boots on the ground," he told the publication. "Before I make a decision from the top, I'm going to want to see how it will impact my co-workers on the bottom, because they’re the ones that will have to carry it out."
He told the news outlet that he wants to lower response times and increase diversity in the division, as well as keeping his emergency workers safe after EMS worker Lt. Alison Russo was fatally stabbed by a mentally ill man in September.
A 28-year veteran, Fields said that the first thing he is going to focus on is finding out the things he may not be tuned into regarding the job and division.
"The first thing I'm going to do is find out what I don't know," he told the Daily News.
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