Fire Chief

About the Role

The Fire Chief provides senior technical and operational leadership for the Company's industrial firefighting and fire-response capabilities across refinery, terminal, pipeline, and marine operations. This position supports the Emergency Response Manager (ERM) in maintaining a highly capable emergency response organization and serves as the Company's subject matter expert for refinery/terminal firefighting, fire suppression tactics, fire protection systems, emergency response team (ERT) readiness, training, pre-incident planning, exercises, and mutual aid.

Responsibilities

• Industrial Firefighting & Incident Response:
  • Serve as the senior technical fire response expert for refinery and terminal operations.
  • Develop and maintain site-specific fire response strategies and tactics for high-hazard operations.
  • Provide technical and tactical direction during refinery, terminal, pipeline, and marine fire emergencies.
  • Evaluate fire conditions, process hazards, firewater availability, foam requirements, exposure risks, access, weather conditions, and potential escalation.
  • Provide the Incident Commander with timely technical recommendations regarding fire suppression, containment, exposure protection, evacuation, resource requirements, and escalation.
  • Lead or direct fire response operations within the Incident Command System when assigned.
  • Maintain readiness to respond to significant emergency events and provide senior fire expertise during off hours as required.
• Fire Protection & Pre-Incident Planning:
  • Provide technical expertise regarding firewater, foam, hydrants, monitors, fire pumps, fixed suppression systems, apparatus, and other fire protection resources.
  • Develop and maintain fire-specific pre-incident plans for tanks, refinery, process areas, loading facilities, docks, pipelines, and other high-hazard areas.
  • Identify deficiencies affecting fire response capability, recommend corrective actions, and drive them to completion.
• Training & Exercises:
  • Develop and maintain the technical content of the Company’s industrial firefighting and ERT training program in coordination with the ERM.
  • Conduct fire drills, tabletop exercises, and full-scale emergency exercises.
  • Develop realistic refinery fire scenarios and evaluate response performance.
  • Maintain ERT competency and readiness.
  • Incident Command and tactical command training.
  • Mutual-aid exercises.
  • Evaluate training and exercise performance and recommend improvements to personnel competency, equipment, procedures, and response tactics.
  • Develop realistic refinery and petrochemical fire scenarios for emergency exercises and preparedness planning.
  • Participate in incident critiques, after-action reviews, and emergency response investigations.
  • Identify lessons learned and recommend improvements to fire response tactics, training, equipment, procedures, and fire protection capabilities.
• Mutual Aid & Fire Department Coordination:
  • Establish and maintain strong technical working relationships with local fire departments, industrial fire organizations, mutual-aid partners, and specialized firefighting resources.
  • Evaluate mutual aid capabilities and limitations.
  • Identify resources required for credible worst-case refinery and terminal fire scenarios.
  • Coordinate technical fire planning with external fire departments.
  • Participate in joint drills and exercises.
  • Familiarize mutual aid partners with site hazards, access, firewater systems, staging areas, and tactical considerations.
  • Serve as the Company’s primary technical fire liaison during fire service coordination.
• Continuous Improvement:
  • Participate in fire-related incident investigations and after-action reviews.
  • Identify lessons learned and recommend improvements to tactics, training, equipment, procedures, and fire protection capabilities.
  • Evaluate drill and incident performance.
  • Identify deficiencies in equipment, tactics, training, procedures, and fire protection systems.
  • Benchmark the company's industrial firefighting program against leading refinery/terminal practices.
• Incident Command & Emergency Response:
  • Serve as the fire tactical/technical lead during significant incidents.
  • Assume Fire Branch, Fire Group, or other tactical command responsibilities when assigned.
  • Provide the Incident Commander with fire behavior, suppression, resource, and escalation assessments.
  • Coordinate fire response personnel and equipment.
  • Establish and communicate fireground tactical objectives.
  • Request additional firefighting or mutual aid resources when necessary.
  • Maintain situational awareness of changing fire conditions and potential escalation.
  • Participate in command briefings and operational updates.

Qualifications

Required:

• 15+ years of progressive fire service/emergency response experience.
• Significant refinery, petrochemical, chemical, terminal, or other high-hazard industrial firefighting experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading industrial fire brigades, ERT, or responding to major industrial fire events.
• Strong experience with fireground tactics and Incident Command.
• Firefighter I & II certification or equivalent.
• ICS/NIMS training, including advanced ICS courses appropriate for the position.
• Strong knowledge of industrial fire protection, firewater, foam, and suppression systems.
• Experience developing firefighting training, drills, and exercises.
• Experience working with municipal and/or industrial mutual-aid organizations.
• Strong leadership, communication, and crisis-management skills.

Preferred:

• Previous Industrial Fire Chief, Assistant Fire Chief, or equivalent experience.
• Fire Officer and/or Fire Instructor certification.
• HAZMAT Technician certification.
• Extensive tank-fire, hydrocarbon-fire, and refinery/process unit firefighting experience.
• Advanced industrial firefighting training through TEEX or equivalent.