CANAAN — There’s a new fire chief in town, and he says he’s not going anywhere.
“I don’t have an end date in mind,” Chief Jeremy Thibeault said Thursday by phone.
Thibeault, 48, joined the Canaan Fire Department a month ago, but he’s by no means new in the community.
Now welcomed as the seventh person to lead the department in a three-year period, Thibeault, a Canaan resident of 11 years, told the Valley News he’s committed to serving as chief for the next several years.
“I just thought it would be a nice way to give back to the community I live in,” said Thibeault.
Three days into the job, Thibeault helped respond to a fourth-alarm fire on Potato Road that burned down a barn and heavily damaged the home beside it.
Thibeault recalled that as the tones went out for that fire, he worried he wasn’t ready for it. In the end, his experience prepared him for the situation.
“Once I was there, it was all just kind of muscle memory and flowed,” said Thibeault.
Since then, there hasn’t been a fire of that magnitude, but there is a steady call volume, making the department busier than Thibeault expected, he said.
Former Chief Chris Olsen retired at the end of July, months after permanent appointment to the role. While he said he originally intended to serve for five years, those plans changed due to an interest in moving to North Carolina.
Finding a permanent chief to serve a longer tenure has been an extended task since Canaan’s first full-time fire chief and emergency services manager, John Hennessy, stepped down unexpectedly in 2024 without explanation after 40 years in the department and two years as chief.
The Selectboard appointed Rick Colburn as interim chief after Hennessy’s January 2024 departure, but he moved away in June that year. Hue Wetherbee, the department’s third-in-command at the time, then served as an interim chief for a few months, but ultimately declined to become chief on a part-time basis.
The Selectboard then appointed Bill Bellion, who previously held the position, to serve as a part-time chief in October 2024. He stepped down later in the year, and Olsen took over on an interim basis.
Olsen worked for about four months but then left for eight months — from March to November 2025 — due to personal reasons, he said. During that period, Steve Kulacz, a current assistant chief, took over temporarily.
After Olsen returned to continue serving on an interim basis, the fire department voted earlier this year to give him a permanent role as chief, according to Jan. 6 Selectboard meeting minutes.
The two assistant chiefs, Mathew Jordan and Kulacz, ran the show between Olsen’s departure and Thibeault’s appointment. Thibeault noted that they have helped tremendously with his onboarding process.
Before being hired as Canaan’s new fire chief, Thibeault worked as a community paramedic for Lebanon Fire Department for 18 years, as part of his 30 years of combined fire and medical service experience.
Thibeault had worked with Jack Wozmak — Canaan’s interim town administrator through consulting firm Municipal Resources Incorporated — back when Wozmak was the interim city manager in Lebanon. Wozmak, Olsen, Police Chief Ryan Porter and the Selectboard interviewed Thibeault and chose him for the role.
Porter is transitioning from the police department to the role of town administrator over the next couple of years, currently serving as assistant town administrator. In an announcement about Thibeault’s hiring, he noted the town is putting effort into ensuring a strong staff in Canaan.
“That means recruiting more broadly, being competitive, and building a workplace where good people want to stay,” Porter wrote in an email announcement.
While Olsen put together and submitted the department’s 2027 budget, Thibeault is tasked with defending it due to the timing.
Thibeault will earn $90,000 a year as chief and an additional $15,000 for working as health officer, though he’s still waiting on certification by the state for that position, he said.
Being a resident is added motivation for Thibeault to see the organization succeed.
“I don’t want to end on bad terms, and I don’t want to run away from a challenge should one arise,” said Thibeault.
He said he’s picked up on some efficiency improvements worth considering and wants to make the department more data-driven overall.
