fire chief

A fire chief (or fire commissioner in some jurisdictions) is a top executive rank or commanding officer in a fire department. Fire chiefs may have varying administrative and operational responsibilities depending on the size of their department. In smaller departments, the fire chief may take on an integral role in operations as the incident commander. In many large departments, a fire chief typically serves a more administrative role, and supervises other lower-ranked chiefs who are entrusted to operationally command most incidents. A fire chief will typically respond to incidents in their own specialized command vehicle as opposed to standard fire apparatus. Depending on their jurisdiction, they may be elected or appointed to their position.