Exclusive Interview with Los Angeles County Fire Department's New Chief Deputy of Emergency Operations John Tripp

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After 26 years with the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), John B. Tripp was named by Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman as the Department's Chief Deputy of Emergency Operations. Tripp will serve as second in command of one of the largest fire departments in the country with 171 fire stations serving four million residents in the County. In his years with the Department, Tripp learned the organization from the ground up as FDNNTV.com's Barbara Brooks learned during her one-on-one interview.

Chief Tripp started with LA County in 1983 as a student worker assisting fire inspectors.  Several years later he became a firefighter, rising through the ranks, holding many different positions throughout the years and working on many memorable incidents around the country when he was with Task Force 2, including hurricane Katrina.

"In 2005 I was the task force leader for the Katrina deployment," Tripp said. His team was part of the third wave of task forces to arrive in New Orleans handling water rescues. Explaining that deployment, he said, "I think any firefighter that went down there through that experience that definitely will stay for the rest of their careers. Because it was quite a challenging experience." 

Chief Tripp also has extensive command on different wildfires to hit the County over the years, including last year's devastating Sayer Fire that threatened a County Hospital and destroyed a mobile home park. "The mobile home park was at the heel of a canyon that was in perfect alignment with the winds. Once the fire had take hold of some of those mobile homes it basically was no longer a brush fire, it became a conflagration," Tripp explained.

At one point, he was alerted firefighters could no longer defend the mobile home park and had to leave. So, he went to the scene to make sure the commanders were making the right decision. "I did feel that that was our responsibility that if there was going to be that type of loss, that it should be at the highest level of the incident command," he continued. "The next day I went in there and there was actually fire hoses that were cut with fire axes. Because the firefighters had no time to roll up the hoses to get out."

Chief Tripp was named to the position of Chief Deputy after Michael Dyer, the Chief Deputy of Business Operations left to become the new chief of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. At that time, Daryl Osby was the Chief Deputy of Emergency Operations. He moved into the vacancy created by the departure of Chief Dyer. Tripp received his promotional appointment following an internal search by the Department that was open to the six Deputy Chiefs that are part of the Executive Team.

Chief Tripp now oversees three regional operations bureaus which include nine field divisions, the Tech Services Division, the Lifeguard Division, and the Air & Wildland Division which he oversaw in his last position as Deputy Chief. 

During the interview, Chief Tripp touched on the economic problems facing all fire  departments, "We've had challenges in the fire service for as long as there's been a fire service. But with the economic times, with the challenges in cuts in service those are hard decisions that nobody's making lightly." At the same time he praised firefighters saying they are what makes the fire service great. 



Author:Barbara Brooks - FDNNTV.com