NAMES IN THE NEWS
DEPARTMENTS
Five senior fire officials have been awarded fellowships to attend Harvard University’s “Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government” this summer. The 19day training program is sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) United States Fire Administration and the National Fire Academy. Those selected were:
Earl E. Fordham, deputy fire chief, Los Angeles County Fire Department, Los Angeles, CA;
Ross A. Fosberg, fire chief, Anchorage Fire Department, Anchorage, AK;
Louis T. Galante, fire commissioner, Chicago Fire Department, Chicago,IL;
Edward A. Donaldson, director (fire chief), Metropolitan Dade County Fire Department, Miami, FL;
Walter Smittle III, state fire marshal, Charleston, WV.
The two alternates chosen were:
Allen R. Carter, deputy fire chief, Long Beach Fire Department, Long Beach, CA;
Rocco J. Gabriele, state fire marshal, Baltimore, MD.
The fellowships were awarded by Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s admission committee, based upon recommendations of a nominating panel that included FEMA and fire service officials and former program participants. This year’s selections were made from 123 qualified applicants.
Donna P. Brehm was promoted to battalion chief of the Virginia Beach Fire Department, making her the first woman to reach that rank in the state of Virginia. Chief Brehm has a master’s degree in public administration.
Ronald S. Jones retired as fire chief of the Cranston, RI, Fire Department, a position he held for 10 years, to become the director of fire training for the state of Rhode Island. The state’s fire training agency, a newly created agency of the Fire Marshal’s Office, will handle and standardize all the training of all the fire departments (both paid and volunteer) in Rhode Island, with the exception of large departments such as Providence, which can afford to run their own training programs. For the past four years, Chief Jones had worked on the committee to plan the state’s fire training program, having been appointed by former Governor J. Joseph Garrahy. Chief Jones has been a Cranston firefighter for 34 years, a volunteer firefighter in Warwick and Lakewood, and a U.S. Navy shipboard firefighter during World War II.
Frank Brannigan, FIRE ENGINEERING’S consulting editor and the author of BUILDING CONSTRUCTION FOR THE FIRE SERVICE, was presented with the International Society of Fire Service Instructors’ Board of Director’s Award and given a lifetime membership in the society. Recognized for his “… dedicated and untiring efforts in improved training and education,” Mr. Brannigan also has life memberships in the National Fire Protection Association and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
