Courtesy Photo | Former Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Kelly is U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground’s new Fire...... read more read more
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Former Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Kelly has been named the new fire chief for U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG).
Kelly has served as the interim chief for more than six months and has served at the YPG Fire Department for the last six years in various positions.
In 2020 in the midst of COVID, he started as the training chief, which he thoroughly enjoyed.
“You are setting up for teaching the guys to do a lot of different skills and it’s neat and a lot of fun,” Kelly said of the role.
That position was cut short because he was mobilized to the Middle East for eight months as an Air Force reservist.
Kelly’s extensive career in the fire service began while he served 10 years active duty and 16 years as a reservist in the Air Force.
“It was a great time; I am so happy I did it,” he said of the experience.
Once back from deployment Kelly filled two more roles at YPG, as the assistant chief of operations and as the deputy fire chief. He served in that role for the last three years.
Now, as the chief, Kelly plans to continue being a servant leader to his team saying he looks at the three P’s, people, processes and programs.
“I focus on people, I grow people, because if I can grow one person and then another, eventually, I have grown the organization.”
He says processes are “about repeatable success,” so if the process is broken, it needs to be fixed to make sure people are successful every single time.
Lastly, Kelly explains that programs which provide insight and analysis help identify gaps that can be improved for continuous process improvement.
The YPG Fire Department holds a vital role not only for the YPG community serving the residents and the proving ground but also providing support to the surrounding communities. Because of mutual aid agreements, which are pre-arranged agreements with community partners like Department of Public Safety, The Bureau of Land Management, Yuma County Sheriff’s Department, and Rural Metro among others, the YPG Fire Department responds to calls outside of the installation gates.
“Our ability to run and provide service to our community is very wide.”
Kelly further explains that he conducted a community risk analysis roughly a year ago to get a better understanding of who is driving on the public roads surrounding YPG.
“It proved the concept that more than likely if there is an accident out there, it’s one of our own,” he said. With Rural Metro about 30 minutes away it makes sense for YPG’s emergency services to provide first response from one of its three fire stations which have emergency medical services.
Kelly is ready to lead YPG’s Fire Department and is grateful for the community partner relationships and hopes to “continue to strengthen the community bonds.”
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 06.15.2026 09:48 |
| Story ID: | 567366 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 11 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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