JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Fire Rescue has nearly 1,900 uniformed personnel, 68 fire and rescue stations and operates on a $400 million budget.
News4JAX interviewed Former JFRD Fire Chief Martin Senterfitt earlier on Monday, before it was announced that Percy Golden would be taking the lead.
Golden, who is no stranger to Jacksonville Fire and Rescue, has served with the department for 21 years and is currently the Deputy Division Chief of Emergency Preparedness. He steps into the role as Fire Chief at a time of continued growth for Jacksonville, and mounting pressure on first responders.
Before the announcement was made, Senterfitt said that whoever is picked for the position has to have a strong business background. He also offered his advice about what he calls a challenging and rewarding job.
“You know, it’s one of the largest fire departments in the nation,” Senterfitt said. “It’s a very distinguished fire department, very old fire department, but it, like every urban fire department, has major challenges.”
Senterfitt says Golden’s biggest challenges ahead will be staffing, funding, and keeping up with the city’s rapid development.
“You’re trying to provide quality service to a very large population,” he explained. “You know, the the land mass of Jacksonville is quite unique, and you’re managing literally, well over 1,000 employees with a budget that’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars. You must be thoughtful, you have to be deliberate, and you have to work through those issues.”
The former fire chief adds that while it can be challenging to manage all of these factors at once, it’s a “very rewarding” feeling to do so successfully.
Senterfitt, who served the City of Jacksonville from 2011-2015, also gave some advice for the incoming chief regarding balancing the department’s needs and meeting the public’s expectations.
“It’s not personal,” Senterfitt noted. “As the fire chief, you’re automatically going to be the person that sometimes gets attacked, you’re going to get blamed, you’re going to get challenged. That’s just the role of the job. You have to understand that there are a lot of influences that are occurring out there, whether they’re political, financial, and you just got to go in and keep an open mind, stay positive and don’t allow the day-to-day issues of a fire department drag you down.”
He continued, “You work through it, stay positive, and always focus on those core goals, which are providing good quality service to the citizens of Jacksonville.”
Percy Golden was selected out of 5 finalists for the position of Fire Chief. According to JFRD, the department serves about 950,000 residents in an area covering 918 square miles.