FAIRHOPE, Ala. - Fairhope has a new top firefighter.

The members of the Fairhope Volunteer Fire Department elected Chris Ellis as its fire chief during its annual election Tuesday night at Fire Station No. 1.

“I’m a third-generation firefighter,” Ellis said. “It’s pretty much been in my blood since the day I was born.”

Ellis, a city employee who maintains equipment at the VFD, said his father is a former fire chief in Vermont.

Although most Fairhope firefighters are volunteers, a few city employees work at the department.

Forty of the department’s 54 voting members elected the new chief over John Saraceno, who was seeking a third term, Ellis said. Firefighters need six months of service to be eligible to vote, he said.

The vote was by a majority, Ellis stated by e-mail, but the actual vote count was not provided by press time.

“The guys decided to put me in as chief,” he said. “We would like to thank John Saraceno for serving the past two years as chief of the Fairhope Volunteer Fire Department.”

The members also elected Dale Kelly as 1st Assistant Chief, Joey Leavitt as 2nd Assistant Chief, Mark Poilluci as secretary, and Jimmy Cluster as treasurer, according to the FVFD.

Ellis said decisions about the staffing of captains and lieutenants at each of the city’s three fire stations would be made by himself and the two assistant chiefs, which had not happened yet.