Fresh Loaf

U.S. Fire Administrator Kelvin Cochran

Still drunk with confirmation power, the U.S. Senate today gave the OK for Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran to be named the new U.S. Fire Administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Cochran’s duties at the federal agency will include overseeing and executing national strategies to prevent fires and improve emergency response.

A 28-year fire service veteran, Cochran said in a statement that the opportunity to work with President Barack Obama’s administration is an “honor.”

Mayor Shirley Franklin commended Cochran’s service to the city. “While we will miss him, we are proud that President Obama selected him for US Fire Administrator and are certain he will continue his public service with distinction,” she said in a statement.

Franklin says she’ll review a committee’s recommendations for an interim fire chief.

(Photo by Jeff Riley)

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I’d heard this rumor late Thursday, but hadn’t been able to confirm it — until now. Atlanta’s own Kelvin Cochran, chief of the Department of Fire Rescue — colloquially known as the fire department — will be moving up to a sweet gig in the Obama administration. Here’s his blurb from the White House press release:

Kelvin James Cochran, Nominee for U.S. Fire Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security
Kelvin Cochran has had 28 years of experience from Firefighter to Assistant Chief Training Officer to Fire Chief of Shreveport, Louisiana, to Fire Chief of Atlanta, Georgia with involvement in all phases of the fire service: fire fighting, emergency medical services, hazardous materials, recruiting, public education, research and development, employee counseling, discipline, performance evaluation, and administration, with specialization in training and strategic planning/facilitating. He has also served as the 1st Vice President of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, President of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association, and Vice Chairman of Volunteers of America.

Cochran has been with Atlanta only since December 2007, when he was hired to replace Dennis Rubin, another chief who’d left to climb the career ladder. But, a month after his arrival, the city budget crisis was revealed and the Franklin administration began cutting expenses, including shuttering Fire Station No. 7 and, eventually, placing firefighters on furloughs.

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Well, not quite yet, but Michael Wagoner, president of the Berkeley Park Neighborhood Association, tells me that their local station at 1545 Howell Mill Road is scheduled to reopen on Thursday, thanks to Monday’s approval of a $541 million city budget that included a 3-mill tax increase.

Station 23 was ordered closed by Mayor Franklin late last year as city revenues continued to dip. The administration said then that the closure was temporary, but that didn’t seem to satisfy the neighbors, who gathered hundreds of signatures to persuade the mayor to re-open the station.

Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran laid out the benefits of the tax hike in an e-mail to Wagoner:

For citizens, the measure restores services that were reduced or eliminated due to furloughs by restoring personnel to normal work hours and work schedules. Atlanta Fire Rescue will have the capacity to staff Engine 23 and Truck 12. For employees, the tax increase benefit will restore 10 percent of their salary, which is a tremendous blessing and morale booster during these tough economic times.

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