[11-10-2022 by Ord. No. 8423[1]]
(a) 
The Department of Fire shall be responsible for the normal services of fire protection to the residents of the City and their property, and shall also include responsibilities relative to emergency management.
(b) 
The director of the Department of Fire shall be the Fire Chief. He shall have at least 10 years of firefighting experience and shall be appointed to Fire Chief from within the ranks of the New Castle Department of Fire and may be demoted without cause, but not to any rank lower than the rank which was held at the time of appointment as Fire Chief. In the event that no qualified individual from within the ranks of the New Castle Department of Fire is qualified for the position of Fire Chief, a qualified individual from outside the ranks may be appointed Fire Chief. The Fire Chief shall be capable of administering all facets of Fire Department administration and shall have knowledge of accepted fire practices and procedures, and shall have suitable leadership qualities and acceptable personality traits. The Fire Chief shall also serve and act as Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Coordinator with all the powers given by law to those position.
(c) 
The Department of Fire shall be organized in accordance with recognized sound principles of administration of fire departments generally, and shall include firefighting, fire prevention, community education, rescue operations, emergency medical services (EMS) and emergency management.
(d) 
All hiring, promoting, disciplining, and other employment practices shall be regulated by the City's duly adopted civil service rules and regulations.
[1]
Editor's Note: Former Art. 149, Department of Fire, adopted 6-14-1984 by Ord. No. 6804, as amended, was repealed 11-10-2022 by Ord. No. 8422.
[11-10-2022 by Ord. No. 8423]
Whenever a salaried firefighter employed by the City as a firefighter is hereafter appointed Fire Chief, or is otherwise promoted in the Department of Fire, he/she shall not thereby be deemed to have changed or lost his/her status as a firefighter of the City, but he/she shall continue to be a firefighter under the civil service law of this commonwealth. In case of his/her demotion or failure to be reappointed he/she shall continue to remain in the service of the City and in the ranks as a regular salaried firefighter.
[11-10-2022 by Ord. No. 8423]
Retirement from the service of the Fire Department shall be required for all paid firefighters who have reached the age of 70 years.
[11-10-2022 by Ord. No. 8423]
(a) 
No City firefighter, while on duty and in the course of his employment, shall be permitted to authorized to go, or to take any equipment of the City, outside of the City limits of the City, unless s/he has been specifically authorized thereto as provided in this section.
(b) 
Any fire company organized and existing in any municipality in Lawrence County outside the City may authorize its president, its chief, and not more than two subordinate officers, through the execution of mutual aid agreements to act as responsible representatives of the company and of the municipality, which the company serves, to solicit aid from the City's Department of Fire in time of actual need. When such mutual aid agreement has been filed with the City Clerk and approved by Council, the Fire Chief, or the person lawfully delegated by him/her at any time to direct the City's Department of Fire, may send such employees of the New Castle Fire Department to the aid of the fire company requesting such mutual aid, and in answering that call and returning from it, any City employee so directed to go outside the City limits, shall be acting in the course of his employment as a City firefighter.
(c) 
In sending employees of the Department of Fire outside the City limits, the Fire Chief or other officer, whom s/he shall delegate to exercise that authority, may permit the members of the City's Department of Fire to take with them outside the City limits for the purpose of answering a mutual aid call as aforesaid, any fire equipment of the City, which s/he believes would be necessary and essential to give the best aid possible to the fire company asking for such aid.