Congratulations to Austin Fire Department (AFD) Division Chief Rob Vires, who was selected yesterday as our next Chief of Staff! This appointment takes effect with the retirement of Assistant Chief Tom Dodds in March after more than 33 years of service.
Chief Vires has spent more than 23 years with AFD, working his way up through the ranks to his current assignment: supervising our Prevention and Investigations Divisions, comprised of 16 engineers, 10 administrators, and 32 uniform personnel. They oversee incident investigations, juvenile fire setter intervention, code enforcement, code adoption, plan reviews, inspections, special events, admin support, and fee processing. Chief Vires also serves as the City of Austin’s Fire Marshal, a position he has held for the past three years.
While in Operations, Chief Vires held various station assignments across Battalion 1 (Downtown Austin), during which time he received the department’s Medal of Merit, awarded to any member who saves the life, or attempts to save the life, of a human being by an act of rescue. He moved on to the position of Team Leader at our Cadet Training Academy and later, as the Support Lieutenant over our cadet and probationary firefighting processes. He subsequently promoted to the rank of Captain, overseeing our Special Operations training program, and then to the rank of Battalion Chief, where he managed our Communications and Dispatch section. He was appointed to the rank of Division Chief in 2016.
(Photo courtesy of Austin Fire Department)
