Mark Risen has been tapped by City Manager Brad Miyake to continue serving as Bellevue fire chief permanently, after taking on the position in the interim 10 months ago.

Risen has served with the Bellevue Fire Department for 32 years, taking on the position of interim fire chief last June, succeeding retiring Chief Mike Eisner. Eisner retired last May after serving 40 years with the BFD.

The city had plans to conduct a national search for a new fire chief, but was delayed by the city manager’s search for a new police chief to replace Linda Pillo, who retired last April.

“They opened it up and then pulled it right back off the market,” said Bellevue Fire Lt. Rich Burke. “That was 6-8 months ago.”

The city manager had determined last year the police chief would need to be replaced before finding a permanent fire chief. After failing to find a viable candidate out of five police chief finalists — one pulled their name from consideration — tapped by an independent consulting firm in October, Miyake selected Stephen Mylett to lead the department last month, following a second-round search.

“They had the police chief that they went out for twice, and I don’t think they wanted to do both of them at the same time and things have been going so well,” Burke said of Risen’s selection as fire chief. “Things have been going really well under his leadership.”

Joining the department in 1983, Risen moved up the ranks to deputy chief, and recently served as interim chief in Woodinville during a six-month period.