Ledyard — The fire chief of the Ledyard Department has announced he will leave in January to take a job with the Department of Homeland Security.

Chief John Doucette has served for 18 years, beginning when he was 16 and for the last four years as the department's chief. Born and raised in Ledyard, Doucette has also spent the past 12 years as an officer with the Groton Town Police Department.

He will leave Ledyard for San Diego, where he has accepted a job as a marine interdiction agent, intercepting contraband at the border.

Doucette said his priorities as chief were improving the department's relationship with mutual aid partners like the North Stonington Volunteer Fire Company and making a broader range of training available to his staff.

"One of the things I'm not going to miss leaving here is the huge amount of fatal accidents that we see in this town," Doucette said. "One of my challenges was dealing with a relatively young volunteer force that hadn't been exposed to the trauma in fatal accidents in the past."

Ledyard's fire department is made up of four career firefighters and 45 volunteers. Doucette noted that the department faces difficulty attracting and holding onto volunteers.

"Every volunteer department is struggling with volunteer recruitment and retention nowadays. It's hard to get people to volunteer, so that's going to be a struggle that the next chief is going to have to deal with here," he said. "But I think the town is going to continue to be well served with the officers and members that we have in place currently, and everyone is ready to move up in their posititions to take over when I step down."

Jonathan Mann, the deputy chief, is expected to take over as acting chief in January, ahead of an election in May that will determine a permanent replacement.

n.lynch@theday.com

Twitter: @NathanLynch