Rock Falls native backs out of fire chief’s job

ROCK FALLS – The Twin Cities are once again on the hunt for a fire chief.

Rock Falls native Brian Zinanni, a firefighter and paramedic with the Clayton Fire Department in Clayton, Missouri the last 10 years, has changed his mind about taking the helm, which recently was manned by now-retired Gary Cook, Sterling City Manager Scott Shumard said in an email this afternoon.

Zinanni also is the Missouri state director for Supporting Heroes Inc., a nonprofit that supports the families of fallen firefighters, and it turns out, a cause that holds his heart.

“After the holiday break, Brian Zinanni called the mayors of Sterling and Rock Falls as well as myself to inform us he had reconsidered his acceptance of the position due to his passion and commitment to the Supporting Heroes organization ...,” Shumard wrote.

Sterling and Rock Falls formed Twin City Joint Fire Command in 2013 to facilitate a more coordinated service delivery and to better coordinate policies, purchases and training for the two fire departments, which regularly cooperate on emergency scenes. They share a fire chief.

Now the leaders of both cities will “weigh some options internally and then revisit the issue together in the very near future,” Shumard said. “In the meantime, each city’s fire department will continue to operate under the direction of its respective deputy chief.”

Before joining the Clayton Fire Department, Zinanni was a paramedic with CGH Medical Center and Twin City Ambulance, and was also a paid on-call firefighter with the Rock Falls Fire Department for more than 10 years.