(a) The office of Fire Chief is hereby established. The Fire Chief shall be the director and chief of the Fire Department and the commanding officer thereof, and shall be responsible to the City Manager for the administration, training, discipline, morale and effective deployment and utilization of the members of the Department and for the maintenance and effective deployment and utilization of the property, equipment and apparatus of the Fire Department.
(b) The Fire Chief shall have all such powers as may be necessary and lawful to meet the responsibilities imposed upon him by this article, including but not limited to the following:
(1) He shall have absolute command, control, management, assignment to duties and supervision of every officer, member and employee of the Fire Department during a fire and at all practices and drills, and during all hours when such personnel are on duty.
(2) He shall have absolute control, authority and command of the police officers present at the scene of any fire during the time and continuance of any fire or conflagration, and all orders issued by him to such police officers, and to other persons present, shall be by them explicitly obeyed and performed.
(3) He shall have supervision over the engine houses, trucks and all apparatus and equipment belonging to the Fire Department. He shall be responsible for the serviceable condition of all equipment belonging to the Fire Department, and he shall be responsible that every piece of fire apparatus is equipped at all times with the necessary wrenches and all other equipment belonging to that piece of apparatus and necessary in the successful fighting of fire.
(4) He shall have supervision over all repairs to apparatus and the charge of all supplies, and shall issue them upon his own discretion or upon the authority of the City Manager to the units of the Fire Department, taking from them the receipt of the commanding officer of the unit to which the supplies are issued. He shall have sole control, management and command at fires and alarms of fire over all apparatus and equipment belonging to the Fire Department. Whenever any purchases are to be made, or the fire apparatus used by the Department requires attention or repairs, he shall make a report and recommendations to the City Manager unless the repairs needed are of such character that will require immediate attention.
(5) He shall have authority to direct the pulling down or destroying of any fence, house, building or other thing, if deemed necessary to prevent the spreading of a fire.
(6) He shall be responsible for the keeping of necessary records for the Fire Department, which shall be subject to the inspection of the City Manager and members of Council at any time. Such record shall list and note, inter alia, the state of repair of all property belonging to the Fire Department. He shall record and, upon request, report to the City Manager or to Council, a statement of all fires occurring since the previous report, the units and personnel responding to alarms, the loss and insurance as far as ascertained, the causes of any such fires, together with such suggestions as he may deem advisable to bring the number of fires to a minimum. He shall also keep at his office such books or other records as may be required by State law, the City Manager or Council.
(1975 Code Sec. 7-19)