Chief fire officer

A Chief Fire Officer is the highest ranking or highest commanding officer in the UK Fire Service.

In Scotland the rank of Chief Officer is known as "Fire Master".

Another notable exception to the rule is in the London Fire Brigade where the Chief Officer is known as "The Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade" (or the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority to give it's full title).

Recently some fire services in the UK haved named their Chief Fire Officers as "County Fire Officer". Unfortunately it seems that this has lead to confusion amongst members of the general public and the title is no longer widely used.

Occassionally Chief Fire Officers are called "Chief Executives" to reflect a modern "business approach" that many UK briagdes have adopted. Again this has caused some confusion and the title "Cheif Executive" almost gives the impression that the post is a non uniformed, civilain role.

Mainly all Chief Fire Officers were once frontline firefighters who had progressed through the UK Fire Service rank structure to become a Chief Officer.

Controversially however some Fire Brigades are now employing civilian Chief Fire Officers and this has proved most unpopular with firefighters across the UK.

A Chief Fire Officer is responsible for the day to day operational command of the fire service. Ultimately however major policies and procedures have to be agreed and passed by the "Fire Authority" to whom the Chief Officer reports.

A Fire Authority is a committee of locally elected counsillors. The committee's prime responsibilty is to ensure that the fire service is run properly and responsibly. In simple terms the Chief Officer is directly answerable to someone who represents the interests of the general public.

Some Chief Fire Officers become specially appointed inspectors of the Fire Service Inspectorate. The rank of appointment as an inspector is officially known as "HMI" (Her Majesty's Inspector of Fire Services)The role is uniformed and seen to be superior to that of a Chief Fire Officer. However a HMI has no power to directly command front line fire crews.

A Chief Fire Officer is assisted by one Deputy Chief Fire Officer and up to five Assitant Chief Fire Officers - each of whom will be delegated with commanding one or multiple areas of fire brigade operations such as training, vehicles and equipment, Information technology or Human Resources for example.