Ottawa fire Chief deHooge retiring in 2015
Ottawa fire Chief John deHooge is hanging up his helmet.
The 58-year-old announced Thursday he will retire at the end of January, a little more than five years after he arrived to take the top job.
With the department poised to adopt a new strategic plan next year, deHooge thought the timing was right to pass the torch.
“I thought it best that a new fire chief build and take ownership of that,” he said in an interview.
DeHooge spent the bulk of his 35-year firefighting career in southwestern Ontario, previously serving as fire chief in Waterloo and deputy chief in Oakville.
During his tenure in Ottawa, he pushed to make the department more inclusive, helped to implement a new mental health awareness program, oversaw the opening of two new fire stations, and strengthened partnerships with Ottawa police and paramedics.
He helped the fire department to gain accreditation from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International — a two-year process that concluded in August.
The organization sets standards and best practices, and then individual fire services work to meet them in all facets of the organization, from administration, prevention and training to maintenance, response and recordsmanagement. “That’s certainly one of the accomplishments I’m proudest of,” he said.
On diversity, deHooge said both police and paramedics have much more representative workforces than the fire department. But in recent years, he said, Ottawa’s fire service has moved to embrace more women, people of different nationalities and faith backgrounds, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community.
“Fire was a little late at the table in terms of stepping up and saying, ‘It’s time we have an organization that is representative of our community because there clearly are so many benefits to doing so,” he said, adding it takes time to change the culture.
“Culturally, we have work to do around how we treat each other in the workplace, how we respect each other. Not to paint the picture that it’s a bad place, but by today’s standards we have a bit of work to do.”
Mayor Jim Watson said in a statement deHooge “set a fine example.”
“Chief deHooge’s five years at the helm has led to innovation and international acclaim for our fine Ottawa Fire Services and prepared our team well to move into the future,” the mayor’s statement said.
While city officials will decide whether to replace deHooge from within, deHooge says the department has “certainly prepared some folks here to step into leadership roles relative to what the city is expecting of the next fire chief.
That would include being bilingual — something he is not. That was a point of contention for some when deHooge was chosen in 2009 from a short list of 16 candidates.
DeHooge said he took French lessons for a number of years but is not fluent.
As chief, deHooge advocated for sprinklers in all new houses to combat the speed with which flames and suffocating gases consume modern homes, and he oversaw a public-relations campaign to curb the number of false alarm calls in Ottawa.
But his tenure was not completely free from the flames of controversy. He once violated the city’s no-alcohol policy with an after-hours toast to an officer’s promotion, and he was called out for asking city staff to cancel three parking tickets that had been handed out in non-emergency situations.
In 2013, deHooge earned $178,573.78.
DeHooge said he and his wife plan to stay in Ottawa.