South Shore Promotes Radewan to Battalion Chief

After 30 years in the local fire service, Lt. John Radewan was promoted Thursday to Battalion Chief.

South Shore Fire Chief Robert Stedman made the announcement after the Police and Fire Commission voted Radewan into his new leadership role.

It will be refreshing to see Radewan in the Battalion Chief uniform," said SSFD union president William Miller. "It's great to see someone come up through the ranks and be rewarded for their years of service."

Radewan said he's looking forward to the challenge of joining South Shore's command staff.

"I'm excited," he told Patch. "It will definitely be different after 30 years on the line, but it was time to start this new chapter."

Radewan joined the Mount Pleasant Fire Department as a volunteer in 1983 and was appointed to a full-time paid position in 1985. He was promoted in 1988 to Driver Operator and to Lieutenant in 1998.

As an SSFD Lieutenant, Radewan is a department leader and company officer and he has participated in training new firefighters for the past two years. Since 2005, Radewan has been teaching firefighter certification and driver operator classes as an adjunct instructor at Gateway Technical College. 

While he is looking forward to learning the ropes of his new position, Radewan did say it will be hard to not work as closely with the crews as he's used to doing.

"It's going to be especially hard to leave my crew because they really are one of the best I've ever worked with," he added. "But I am looking forward to continuing to serve the communities of Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant in this new role."