Chief Reardon’s career began in February 1991 as an Explorer with Liberty Township Fire Department – a role he maintained until graduating from The Olentangy High school in 1993. Upon graduation, he enrolled in Eastern Kentucky University’s Fire Administration program. During the summer of 1994, while home on summer break, he completed his Firefighter II certification from the Ohio Fire Academy. Reardon earned his Fire & Explosion Investigator and EMT certifications while at college, ultimately graduating from EKU in May 1997 with a B.S. in Fire Safety Engineering Technology with a concentration in Fire Administration.
Returning to LTFD in May 1997 as a part-time firefighter, Reardon attended and graduated from paramedic school through Tri-Rivers Career Center before officially beginning his full-time career at LTFD on January 5, 1998 as Firefighter/Paramedic.
Prior to becoming full time at LTFD, Reardon also worked as a part-time firefighter/medic at Concord Township where he continued to work part-time – but for the time spent with Fairfax County – until 2003.
Reardon was hired in April 2000 as a firefighter/medic with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department in Northern Virginia where he stayed until March 2001 to return to Liberty Township.
In April 2003, after being promoted to Fire Prevention as an Inspector, Reardon’s main responsibility was overseeing the construction of Station 322 on Sawmill Parkway. This experience led to the formation of a Support Services officer for the department which Reardon fulfilled until being named Chief this year.
Station 322 opened in 2004 and Reardon was promoted to Captain in 2005. In 2009 following the retirement of their long-time chief, he was promoted to Assistant Chief. In 2013, LTFD created a new position of Battalion Chief; Reardon was the first named Battalion Chief of the department.
In the spring of 2019, Reardon began efforts to co-host active aggressor incident training for first responders in Delaware and Franklin Counties. This vitally important training, put on by federal contractors and paid for utilizing federal grant dollars through FEMA, focuses on training paramedics how to assist law enforcement at the scene of an active aggressor incident. He’s successfully brought this real-life, multi-agency exercise to the area twice since 2019, benefiting both Delaware and Franklin County first responders.
Chief Reardon feels that, while becoming the fire chief in the community that raised him is a lifetime achievement, his goal is to ultimately build a department that does not need him in order to operate. He believes in delegating responsibilities to the men and women of his department to foster a sense of ownership of the department, accountability to one another and engagement in the community they serve.
Reardon resides in Columbus with his wife of 22 years, Jill, and their two children Kaiti (currently attending EKU) and Brendan (student at Worthington Kilbourne High School).
Reardon is the 8th Fire Chief to serve Liberty Township since its inception in 1947.