Dave Curry has responded to the concerns of full-time officers over new draft proposals which could leave the town without full-time night cover and reliant on part-time retained crews.
Local firefighters say it is putting the lives of residents at risk in the event of emergency, and claim retained officers may not be able to deal with it - a point strongly refuted by Mr Curry.
"The fear that can be created by these comments is not an accurate reflection of the proposals and I have been disappointed by the criticism over the retained officers.
"These are people who do a very competent job. They live close to the station and are very knowledgeable about the community they serve.
"They are in training every week and as a result of these new proposals we are looking to strengthen our retained crew from 12 to 20."
Mr Curry explained that Haslemere was targeted for change in its crewing arrangement after the monitoring of calls showed there were just seven property fires in the area last year.
But he stressed that the draft proposal is not about cuts to the service, but changes which could free funding for other facilities and safety measures.
"The overall aim is to make Haslemere safer. The town is a very safe community but we don't want to get complacent about that.
"In this area, the number of road traffic accidents is much higher than fires, and so we would like to be able to deal with these more effectively and work more closely with other emergency services."
"If these proposals go through, we should have more money to pay for more sophisticated cutting equipment needed in road accidents."
Mr Curry added that greater funding could be poured into the various preventative projects carried out by the service, such as the "fire wise" scheme, rehabilitating youngsters who have committed arson.
"Of the 220 children who were counselled on this programme, only one went on to re-offend, which shows the success of this kind of scheme and it is an important preventative measure.
"We now want a "fire-wise" officer based at each fire station so that it can work on a permanent footing rather than just occasionally."
He added: "It isn't the case that everyone at the Haslemere station is unhappy with the changes. It's just that not everyone has such a loud voice. Many of the officers have welcomed the change of shift; not everyone wants to work night times and it can be difficult, trying to sort out childcare arrangements."
Haslemere fire service is keen to attract more retained officers to the station.
Those interested must be over 18, with a general level of good health, good eyesight and need to live or work within five minutes of Haslemere fire station.
If the proposals are agreed by Surrey County Council's executive, a consultation period will begin until January 31.