Y-12 Fire Protection Operations has new chief

J. Scott Vowell was recently appointed chief of Fire Protection Operations at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

Vowell, who joined the Y-12 staff in 1993, has been assistant fire chief and fire captain, a press release said. He has also served as a fire inspector at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Clinton native served on the Clinton City Emergency 911 Board from 1997 to 2001 and was a firefighter with the Clinton Fire Department for seven years.

Y-12’s Fire Protection Operations is a division of the plant’s Safeguards, Security and Emergency Services, and it has about 90 employees, including firefighters, battalion chiefs, and support staff, the release said. It provides emergency response for the installation’s 8,000 workers and many facilities in Bear Creek Valley. It also tests, maintains, and inspects the nearly 400 sprinkler systems in these facilities.

“My goal for the Y-12 Fire Department is to maintain the most qualified, trained, and knowledgeable emergency response firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and hazardous material technicians in the valley,” Vowell said in the release.