[11-10-2022 by Ord. No. 8423]
(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.
[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.