Gillett took over the helm of the National Fire Service in July - and a large part of his mission is capacity and morale building by acquiring new equipment.
We asked him how it's been going as an outsider with a specialization far from being a fireman:
Reporter
"When you're going to run a national fire department you wouldn't look naturally to someone who has a specialization in natural resource management; a) how does that fit and, b) what type of pushback have you received because you are not from here. You are an outsider being brought in. Unlike Mr. Ted for example, the preious fire chief who came up in the department - you've never fought a fire."
Colin Gillett, Fire Chief
"This position as fire chief is about management. Natural resource management, which is my background, I don't actually manage natural resources; I manage the people who use the natural resources. Similarly in this position, I don't actually have to know how to fight the fire, which I am learning, but there are people here who are fire-fighters who have been doing it for years. I now manage how they get their job done. I look for the efficiencies; I look for how to be more effective. And if you look at the history of all the fire chiefs that were here for the last four of them: Mr. Baiza, Briggs, Thomas and Mr. Smith. Of those four, only Mr. Smith was an actual fire-fighter; the others came from B.D.F. So the need for you to say that you have to be a fire-fighter to do the job, to be the chief, then no."
Reporter
"Would you speak about the institutional pushback? You're not one of them, you're not one of the guys and it's not running an office. It is a physical and visceral job; it's a fraternity, fire fighters are fraternity and you're breaking into this fraternity. Have the fire fighters embrace you or has there been inevitably a type of pushback?"
Colin Gillett, Fire Chief
"In everything, there is some grumblings. But I think in the past three months since I have been here, I've been able to show them that by looking at the effectiveness or the efficiencies that they have not been doing and providing them with the tools that they have actually needed to a level where they are supposed to be, that pushback has been a lot less."
The 42 year old Gillett was previously the Director of the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute, and Deputy National Coordinator for NEMO.
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