WASHINGTON — Retired Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean will be named as D.C. Fire and EMS’ new chief Monday morning.
The Washington Post reported that Chief Dean, who led the Seattle Fire Department for a decade, was known for improving his department’s performance in cardiac care. Seattle has a department similar in structure to the District’s, with the chief responsible for both firefighting and emergency medical services.
He will replace Interim Chief Eugene Jones, who took command of the embattled department when Chief Kenneth Ellerbe retired last year.
Ellerbe’s tenure was marked by severe criticism over matters that included the fire department’s delayed response when a man died after collapsing outside a firehouse.
Jones’s tenure had proceeded largely without public controversy, and he was credited with improvements, according to the report. But the department was criticized after a Jan. 12 Metro incident near the L’Enfant Plaza station in which smoke filled a train and a woman died.