New Hastings Fire and Rescue Chief shares vision for department's future

HASTINGS, Neb. – After 32 years of unwavering service, the longest tenured employee with Hastings Fire and Rescue has climbed the mountain and now stands at the top as the new Fire Chief.

Troy Vorderstrasse was confirmed by the Hastings City Council on Monday as the city's 17th Fire Chief since 1878.

"I've spent a lot of time here, it's become a big part of my life over the past 30 years," said Vorderstrasse. "I started as a volunteer in 1992, the Chief at the time in '94 JC Mitera gave me my opportunity at that time to get into the fire service, and from there helped me build it into a career."

The former Assistant Fire Chief received a promotion to Lieutenant in 2003, before being named Fire Prevention Officer in 2017. Vorderstrasse was then promoted to Assistant Fire Chief in Feb. 2021.

Recently, he had served as acting Fire Chief since Aug. 14, 2024, and Interim Fire Chief since Oct. 14.

He did this all while maintaining his current role due to the abrupt departure of former Chief Brad Starling, who resigned after citing a disconnect between HFR and the Hastings City Council.

Vorderstrasse says the past five months have prepared him for the top role partially thanks to some helping hands.

"Trying to juggle both of those positions at the same time was an increase in workload," said Vorderstrasse. "A lot of staff that stepped up and took on some of those duties that we could delegate to them have done a great job. Without staff, we'd be stumbling."

Looking ahead to the future, Vorderstrasse wants to make sure the department, currently comprised of 31 employees, keeps its promise of excellent community service by training their youth to become future leaders within the department. 

"We're pretty young, we've got a lot of guys who are eager, so our leadership team has to mold them, and lead them to the culture we want, which is a highly effective providing the most exceptional public safety as we can." said Vorderstrasse.