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FROM STAFF REPORTS

HOOVER— The Hoover Fire Department has announced plans to restructure the department into four divisions, with the stated goal of increasing safety and efficiency of operations, starting March 20.

The department’s four divisions will be as follows: Operations, Administration, Training, and Fire Prevention. Each division will be led by a division chief with each division chief reporting to the fire chief.

In addition, the city will be divided into three distinct emergency response districts. Current fire captains will be reclassified as district captains. There will be three district captains on duty each day (one for each district); they will respond to emergency calls in a command vehicle and will be responsible for supervision of emergency responses within their district as well as emergency responses in other districts of the city as needed. The district captains will also provide administrative supervision to the fire stations within their district.

“Hoover Fire Department is always working to deliver emergency services at the highest level for the city of Hoover,” stated a press release. “The department constantly plans for ways in which we can provide these services in the safest and most efficient manner. After many months of careful planning, it was determined that as the city continues to grow, a restructuring of the department was needed. It was determined that more incident commanders were needed in the field to allow for better supervision and faster response times for incident commanders.”

The move is hoped to allow for better management of multiple emergency simultaneously as well as keep the department compliant with the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) standard concerning span of control for incident commanders.

The release also stated that the restructuring will take effect starting on Saturday, March 20 at 8 a.m.

“We believe these changes will help us accomplish our goals of high quality emergency service delivery while increasing the safety and efficiency of our operations,” the release stated.

Fire lieutenants will continue to provide fire station level supervision on each fire apparatus. The lieutenants will report to their respective district captain.