Fire Chief Jeff Carlisle will retire from the Kelowna Fire Department on March 3 after a distinguished 42-year career as a firefighter and leader.
Carlisle has been Fire Chief in Kelowna for six years and previously served as Fire Chief for the Vernon Fire Department, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and Deputy Chief of the Fort McMurray Fire Department. Before that, Carlisle served as a firefighter in the Canadian Forces for 24 years.
His leadership helped KFD keep up with changes at a time of growth in Kelowna, overseeing a department that continues to provide exemplary service in emergencies and in public education.
“In our 2015 Citizen Survey, 96 per cent of residents said they were satisfied with Fire Services… and 75 per cent of those said were very satisfied with Kelowna Fire Department performance,” said Mayor Colin Basran. “That’s a credit to Jeff’s leadership in maintaining high standards of service.”
A highlight of Carlisle’s tenure in Kelowna includes establishing a revenue generating dispatch centre at KFD that other municipalities use as a contracted service. Carlisle’s leadership also oversaw the development of an enhanced Emergency Management Program, the introduction of modern analytics predictive modelling and dynamic deployment to enhance effectiveness and efficiency, along with a focus on public education and fire prevention to create a safer community and standardization of emergency response for routine and large scale emergencies.
An interim Fire Chief will be appointed internally until a new Fire Chief has been selected.