Orange County (FL) Fire Department victim of government downsizing
More than 100 members of the Orange County (FL) Fire Department lost their jobs this past September. Among those fired were the chief, deputy chief, eight assistant chiefs, all 15 of the departments`s battalion chiefs, all fire inspectors, and many dispatchers, senior fire officers, administrative personnel, firefighters, and paramedics, reports the International Association of Fire Chiefs (On Scene, November 1, 1995). The move was prompted by a revenue shortfall in Orange County of more than $9 million.
“The layoff is both unique and dangerous,” notes IAFC`s Tony McDowell, author of the On Scene article. “It is unique because it decapitated the management structure of a modern, progressive fire department in favor of a `flatter` organizational chart. It is dangerous because government administrators from other localities are certain to be watching the action and its results with interest.”
Some are viewing the action taken in Orange County as the beginning of “painful changes in many large fire departments.” Chief Tom Siegfried, past president of the IAFC and the Florida Fire Chiefs` Association, asserts: “The action in Orange County should be a wake-up call to fire departments across the country, and in particular to metropolitan fire departments. The message must be heard by all of us…because we may be next.”
The “new” Orange County department will be headed by a “director,” who may not be a uniformed member. Four branches–Administration, Emergency Management, Communications, and Fire Operations–will be under the director. Each branch will have a manager. The manager of fire operations will replace the position formerly held by the fire chief, which no longer will be the highest position in the department.
The new Operations branch will have only four levels of rank: firefighter, lieutenant, group supervisor, and chief. The positions of battalion chief, captain, and driver have been eliminated.
“I look at what has been happening all across corporate American, and I look at traditional fire departments, and I see the potential for some real crisis developing,” observes Garry L. Briese, CAE, IAFC executive director. “What has happened in Orange County threatens to become the catalyst for a period of painful forced transition across the fire service.”
