Detroit Fire Commissioner Donald Austin will resign at the end of the year, the office of Mayor Dave Bing confirmed today.
Attempts to reach Austin Tuesday were unsuccessful.
Austin grew up in Detroit but spent almost 30 years in the Los Angeles Fire Department, where he held such executive posts as assistant chief and commander at Los Angeles International Airport.
He was hired as Detroit's civilian fire commissioner in May 2011 to run both firefighting operations and EMS.
Austin was the fifth head of the department in two years, and he inherited a department that, like the rest of city government, was reeling from deep cutbacks over the previous 50 years, and was operating with damaged rigs, worn equipment and too few firefighters and paramedics.
In an interview published Tuesday morning on Deadline Detroit, the outgoing fire union president, Dan McNamara, did not mince words when asked about the condition of the department.
“Our firefighters are in the worst situation they could ever be in, but not a call goes unanswered," McNamara said. "Every one of our engines has over 100,000 miles. We’re riding pieces of crap. We’re wearing horrible gear."
Under Austin, who was forced to adhere to budgets handed down by the mayor, the city cut the department further, shutting 15 fire companies in July 2012. On busy nights -- like Monday, when seven suspected arson blazes broke out on the west side within three hours -- rigs are often forced to respond to fires miles outside their primary district, delaying response times.
Last year, when word got out that some fire stations did not have enough toilet paper, tens of thousands of rolls poured in from around the country.
Austin acknowledged that he has to live within the budget restraints.
At a community meeting in 2012, he said: “I go to bed every night praying I don’t wake up to a disaster.”
Earlier this year, when the city received a grant to hire more firefighters for the first time in years, a glitch over outsourcing forced the postponement in the hiring process.
Austin was one of the featured figures in "BURN," the award-winning documentary on the department that has played hundreds of venues across North America over the past 15 months.
At the raucous Detroit premiere in September 2012, Austin was the chief target of taunting by hundreds of firefighters and their friends and family members. His appearances on the screen were greeted with F-Bombs, boos and cries of “asshole!”
Austin came across in the film as a forceful administrator, but he also is shown at times acting like a scold, which didn’t help him with the rank-and-file watching “BURN” on opening night. In one scene, at a solemn Memorial Day service in Elmwood Cemetery, he refers to Detroit as Los Angeles.
Austin was depicted in the film as growing angry over how the department's vehicle fleet sustained what he believed was unusually heavy damage and arguing with fire fighters about the department's future. He was also shown participating in the Woodward Dream Cruise, driving a restored auto and sipping a Vernor's ginger ale.
Previously on Deadline Detroit:
