Former GA Chief Taking Helm in TX City

    Nov. 2, 2018
    Retired Atlanta Fire Chief Joel Baker has been chosen among three finalists to be the new chief of the Austin Fire Department.

    By Philip Jankowski

    Source Austin American-Statesman

    Atlanta Fire Rescue Department
    Former Atlanta Fire Chief Joel Baker, who has been named the new chief of the Austin, TX, Fire Department.
    Former Atlanta Fire Chief Joel Baker, who has been named the new chief of the Austin, TX, Fire Department.

    Nov. 2 -- Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk has selected retired Atlanta fire chief Joel Baker to be the next head of Austin Fire Department.

    Cronk confirmed the selection to the Statesman on Friday. Baker was one of three finalists for the job. The other two finalists were Laredo Fire Chief Steve Landin and Fire Chief Kevin McGee of Prince William County, Va.

    Baker will take over a department that had been led by chief Rhoda Mae Kerr, the city's first woman to have held the department's top job. Kerr left Austin this summer to join a South Florida fire department.

    Baker will oversee 1,151 sworn firefighters, 106 civilian staffers and an annual operating budget of almost $200 million.

    ___ (c)2018 Austin American-Statesman, Texas Visit Austin American-Statesman, Texas at www.statesman.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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