WILTSHIRE and Swindon Fire Authority has appointed a new assistant chief fire officer. Peter Baxter will take up his job on October 18 and moves to Wiltshire from Buckinghamshire where he has served his entire 26 years in the fire service.

Mr Baxter fills the vacancy left by Eugene Johnson's promotion to become Wiltshire's deputy chief fire officer.

Mr Baxter started his fire service career as a retained fire fighter in 1978 while he worked full time as a bank clerk. He soon realised that the fire service was his ideal job and six months later he joined as a full time officer.

He served almost four years as a firefighter after which he was promoted into the junior officer ranks in fire safety enforcement, soon advancing to station officer and then transferring to area operations command in 1988.

He was promoted to assistant divisional officer in headquarters and operations and staff roles followed by a promotion in 1996 to divisional officer where he oversaw the project to create a combined fire authority for Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

He was selected for the brigade command course in 2002 and returned to Buckinghamshire as a senior divisional officer.

He said he and his wife Pat are excited about the Wiltshire move.