WORCESTER, Mass. - The city of Worcester is set to swear in Martin Dyer as its new fire chief. 

Dyer became the acting chief after the retirement of former Fire Chief Michael Lavoie in 2021. He's a 19 year veteran of the department and also served as deputy chief for four years. 

Dyer described his appointment to chief as an honor. His goal now is to serve the city with an effective and safe fire department.

"We're really going under a transformation in this fire department," Dyer said in an interview Tuesday. "We've been working really hard on our strategic plan, the initiatives from the ESEI Master Plan report. So, really, my first goal is to continue that, to really continue with this culture change.

"We're bringing a lot of new people onto this fire department, so it's really important that we're bringing those new members in and teaching them this is what the Worcester Fire Department is."

Among those initiatives is improved communication. Dyer said written communications are now sent once a week, in an attempt to give all crews as much information as possible.

"We try to be as transparent and open as possible to the command staff, so that they're sharing that with us," Dyer said. "Starting next month, we'll have our new command system in place where we have a deputy chief in charge of the groups who will be working closely with the fire administration on making sure that the communication is working really, really well, going up and going down."

Dyer also emphasized the importance of a strong training program. A swearing in ceremony is set for March 16 at Worcester City Hall.