{"id":13009,"date":"2025-10-20T22:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13009\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T22:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:16:07","slug":"orlando-leaders-praise-4th-new-fire-chief-in-6-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13009\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando leaders praise 4th new fire chief in 6 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Orlando\u2019s leaders heaped praise on the deputy chief who will be promoted to interim fire chief in a few days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Jason Revoldt has served the department for 24 years as he rose through the ranks, which included overseeing the Arson &amp; Bomb squad and new construction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">\u201cThis guy is a 10-8, as we say in law enforcement,\u201d Commissioner Tony Ortiz said, using language that signified Revoldt is ready to assume command of the agency. As commissioner, Ortiz signs off on Mayor Buddy Dyer\u2019s personnel decisions but does not play a role in the actual selection process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">If his promotion is permanent, Revoldt will become the fourth person to hold the title in six years. The first, Rod Williams <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/news\/local\/former-orlando-fire-chief-rod-williams-testifies-sexual-harassment-case\/SU6S2XTQ5BAMDDQTQDNSFVGTD4\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/news\/local\/former-orlando-fire-chief-rod-williams-testifies-sexual-harassment-case\/SU6S2XTQ5BAMDDQTQDNSFVGTD4\/\" target=\"_blank\">departed amid a sexual harassment scandal<\/a> in 2019. In 2021, his successor, Benjamin Barksdale, resigned after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/news\/local\/orange-county\/orlando-fire-chief-suspended-over-warrant-issued-north-carolina\/YHDMZIROEJEEJORMHHJNNXLWLU\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/news\/local\/orange-county\/orlando-fire-chief-suspended-over-warrant-issued-north-carolina\/YHDMZIROEJEEJORMHHJNNXLWLU\/\" target=\"_blank\">he was arrested in North Carolina<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Current Chief Charlie Salazar said his departure is for personal reasons, but it came shortly after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/news\/local\/orlando-fire-department-accreditation-revoked\/SQVXKZAM4RESJHBXRNJL33G66M\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/news\/local\/orlando-fire-department-accreditation-revoked\/SQVXKZAM4RESJHBXRNJL33G66M\/\" target=\"_blank\">department lost its accreditation<\/a> because it failed to supply the necessary paperwork.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Considering the agency\u2019s past, Ortiz said a shift in the culture had already been in the works with the city focused on preparing deputies to assume the chief role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">\u201cI think we have a tremendous staff within the fire department that can do the job,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cThis is going to be one of them, God willing. I have the utmost confidence in this interim chief that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">He called the internal promotion a \u201cmorale booster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">While he and others signaled Revoldt will be tasked with regaining accreditation status, he downplayed that status\u2019 significance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">In firefighting, a department\u2019s ISO rating determines how much property owners spend on insurance and signals how well equipped an agency is. Orlando Fire maintains an ISO rating of one, the highest possible status.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">\u201cWe are ISO one,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cOur public should continue to feel safe and continue to feel that our firefighters are going to do their job to respond and get there as soon as they need to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760998567_802_APP DOWNLOAD LOCAL_1541693885678.jpg_13622062_ver1.0.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Orlando\u2019s leaders heaped praise on the deputy chief who will be promoted to interim fire&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,11703,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-13009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-orlando","9":"tag-orlando-fire","10":"tag-orlando-headlines","11":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}