DECATUR, Ga. - Authorities in DeKalb County say the county's fire chief has resigned.

The resignation of Fire Chief David Foster comes about a week after a woman died in a house fire that led to the dismissal of four firefighters.

Firefighters responded to a call for help, but officials say they didn't get out of their vehicles at the scene and saw no evidence of a fire.

Five hours later, the house was engulfed in flames and 74-year-old Ann Bartlett died.

A week before the Dunwoody fire, Foster announced that 64 firefighters would lose their jobs because of a budget shortfall.

County CEO Burrell Ellis said the next day that no fire department jobs would be cut.

Ellis has named Deputy Chief Eddie O'Brien as acting chief.

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Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com


Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Our PROTOCOL is when 911 is called, we make contact with the residence, and anyone inside it. Man not a good move. What a crucial mistake.
Personally, I feel bad for the Fire Chief in question. He was not the one who elected to not stop and FULLY investigate what was called in as a structure fire. It also sounds like the CEO was playing games with the chief and the department.

There is no way a fire chief would make a statement that 64 firefighters would lose their jobs because of a budget shortfall unless someone from the county gave them the word. Fire chiefs do not get rid of firefighters, other governmental resources, including the CEO have a hand in this.

How convienient the day after the chief resigns for the CEO to make the statement that no jobs would be cut. This sure sounds like a lot of politics with only part of the story being told. You never will know... In fact, for all we know the chief's departure could have saved 64 jobs...

CBz
We learn all kinds of lessons from things that can go wrong from different incidents, but this is an incident that everyone needs to pay attention to! For what ever their intentions, this should of never happened.

You get called out, no matter what kind of call it is, check it out period!

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