New Leadership Renews Cooperation Among Fire Departments

Change in leadership for the Carrboro Fire Department is leading to its renewed cooperation with the Chapel Hill fire officials.

Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones says in the past Chapel Hill and Carrboro firefighters have worked in close conjunction to best serve citizens of both towns.

“At one time, we had a very close working relationship,” he says.

But Jones says differences arose after a change in management at the Carrboro Fire Department.

“And some differences in philosophy – about how responses are handled and, basically, command and control at emergency scene differences – put some stress on the relationship,” he says. “The personnel in the field continued to work together through that period of time.

“We never stopped working together. It just wasn’t the level of cooperation it had once been.”

Jones says most of the differences in philosophy were highly technical.

After the resignation of Carrboro Fire Chief Travis Crabtree and Deputy Chief Richard Cox earlier this year, an Interim Chief was brought in to lead the Carrboro Department. Jones says that change has brought a renewed sense of teamwork.

“The Interim Chief, Chief Styons who is there now, is of the philosophy that used to be the case in Carrboro and matches well with Chapel Hill,” he says. “We immediately reached out to each other and reestablished that relationship.”

Jones says that decision will lead to a system of close cooperation between the town’s fire departments.

“We’re going back to where we were a few years ago,” he says. “For example in the mutual aid, instead of waiting to see if someone needs help and then calling for that help, it goes back to an automatic mode.

“Which means that the assistance is automatically dispatched by the 911 center in Orange County just on the nature of the call, not waiting to see if it’s serious enough to need help.”

He adds with Chapel Hill and Carrboro in such close proximity it is most beneficial to residents that the crews work together.

“The Interim Chief, Chief Styons, has moved Carrboro back into, probably what I would consider to be, more the mainstream thinking of how things are done,” he says. “So that relationship is very positive again and moving forward.”

Carrboro Interim Fire Chief Rusty Styons retired from the City of Raleigh Fire Department in 2012 as the Assistant Fire Chief, after serving for 30 years.

New Leadership Renews Cooperation Among Fire Departments

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