FDNY Appoints Hodgens as Chief of Department

A veteran FDNY fire chief and second generation FDNY member was appointed Chief of Department Friday morning.

John J. Hodgens was tapped to be the 38th FDNY Chief of Department by Acting Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. He will oversee the department’s 16,000 uniformed firefighters and EMS personnel and four bureaus: Fire Operations, EMS Operations, Training, and Fire Prevention. 

Hodgens, a 36-year member of the department, has been acting in that capacity since January, when then-Chief of Department Thomas Richardson retired.

Before this post, he was Chief of Fire Operations where he oversaw the day-to-day work of more than 11,000 firefighters, officers and chief officers.

He joined the department in 1986 and was assigned to Ladder Company 11 in Manhattan. In 1998 he was promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to Battalion 41 in Brooklyn, and then Ladder Company 157 in Flatbush, Brooklyn. After five years, he was promoted to captain and on Staten Island, including Ladder Company 87 in Eltingville.

He was promoted to battalion chief in 2006 and assigned to Battalion 38 in Brooklyn where he worked with Richardson for five years. In 2012, he was promoted to deputy chief and was assigned as the Division Commander of Division 8 , responsible for fire companies in Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Hodgens was cited twice for bravery, including the rescue of an unconscious occupant from a fire in a Manhattan apartment building in 1992.

He studied at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Columbia Southern University, receiving a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Fire Science and Emergency Management. Hodgens also graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School – Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s Executive Leadership Program, the FDNY’s Advanced Leadership Course, and the Officers Management Institute.

His father, John J. Hodgens Sr., served as the Chief of Fire Prevention and retired after 32 years of service in 1997.