By Lucas Sullivan
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kevin O’Connor was so excited to become a firefighter that he dropped out of college as a junior when he got the call from Springfield to join the fire department.
Nearly 30 years later, O’Connor said today that he has never been as excited to be a firefighter as he is right now.
He officially became Columbus’ 24th fire chief during a swearing-in ceremony today at the fire division’s headquarters at 3675 Parsons Ave. Sixteen other firefighters also were promoted, including three new battalion chiefs, three captains and 10 lieutenants.
“It’s not that I hated my job before, I love my job, it’s just that I get a new opportunity,” said O’Connor, who was an assistant chief in Columbus.
Columbus City Councilman Zach Klein, who heads the city’s safety committee, spoke at the ceremony and said it is O’Connor’s job to continue the work along with the council and a new mayor next year to keep the division moving forward.
Klein said the 50-year-old O’Connor impressed interviewers with his ideas to for recruiting more minority firefighters and delivering services more efficiently.
“Chief O’Connor needs to be working in concert with council and the new mayor and addressing the challenges that face the Division of Fire,” Klein said. “I like his ideas and aggressiveness in his interviews that he plans to use to take on those challenges.”
O’Connor said he will run the division like a successful business, using data to drive big decisions and not relying on anecdotal ideas.
He succeeds Chief Gregory A. Paxton, who retired after 34 years with the division.
Even though O’Connor was just sworn in as chief, his future is far from certain. The city’s charter and civil-service rules call for a mandatory one-year probation for a new fire chief. The chief can be dismissed during that time for any reason.
The new mayor, to be elected in November, could want a new fire chief come next May. Mayor Michael B. Coleman is not seeking re-election.
O’Connor addressed Klein’s remarks and his future by saying he’s accepting the challenge.
“I look at (the transition at City Hall) as as an opportunity,” he said. “Everyone is nervous, and rightly so, but my approach is I want to go out and help the fire division be the best it can be. And whoever wins election and takes office next year, I want to show them that we can do this together.”
O’Connor’s wife, Karen, 51, and daughters Kaitlyn, 27, and Amanda, 25, were at the swearing-in ceremony. O’Connor said they have been supportive of his decision to be in a brighter spotlight.
He and Karen live in Dublin and have been married for 30 years. They were high-school sweethearts at Columbus’ Brookhaven, O’Connor said.
While a junior at Ohio State, he got a call from the fire department about on hour’s drive west in Springfield. He had been selected for its fire academy.
O’Connor dropped out of college, completed the academy and re-enrolled in school that January. He graduated from Ohio State later that year, on time.
“I missed every third day of class because I was working and still graduated on time,” O’C onnor said. “Now I am still living my boyhood dream to be a firefighter.”
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(c)2015 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)
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