Carlos Perez stood at the podium in the Knoxville Convention Center lecture room Monday evening, raised his right hand, and swore to uphold the job of fire chief of the Knoxville Fire Department.
Perez, a veteran of more than three decades with fire departments, says the job has called him back to service.
"Can't stay away when it's in here," Perez said with his hand touching his chest, in an interview earlier in the day from his office. "When you have the fire service here in your heart, it's awful hard to stay away."
Perez says he turned down a job as an airline pilot in 1970 to pursue his dream of becoming a firefighter. His career with the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department lasted 25 years. Before his retirement with that department, he accumulated a display case full of the badges he earned as he climbed the ranks, which he now keeps in his new office.
"When I was very young I used to chase fire trucks on my bicycle," Perez said.
After retiring from Miami-Dade County, Perez took a job as a fire chief in Dekalb County, Georgia. He's spent the past three years as an adjunct faculty professor with Texas A and M, teaching a course on weapons of mass destruction for firefighters.
Perez plans to bring that knowledge to Knoxville, to help the department prepare to respond to a possible terrorist attack.
"Most people are of the mindset that it's not going to happen to me, it's not going to happen here, I'm safe in Knoxville," Perez explains. "...I say wait a second, would you have guessed we would have our first terrorist attack in Oklahoma City?"
Perez says he's also prepared to handle the expectations of a tight budget with the Knoxville Fire Department.
In Miami-Dade County, Perez said money was never a problem. In his tenure there, he established the department's air rescue service, which now has a fleet of four helicopters. But, he says he's also dealt with a budget that allowed for nothing new in Georgia.
"I think my responsibility as an administrator is," Perez said. "If the mayor tomorrow said you'll have to do with $1 million less, is to do the best I can with the money I do have."
Perez doesn't expect a tight budget will impede his desire to help make the Knoxville Fire Department the best department in the country. He also says he believes he has joined a tremendous group of firefighters, in the 300 member Knoxville Fire Department.
"Even before I came here, I was hearing about the men and women of this department," Perez says. "They're outstanding, dedicated people that really love their jobs."
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