The city of Raleigh has been served by sixteen career Fire Chiefs since 1912. And effective [tomorrow, November 1, 2019], Fire Chief John T. McGrath has retired.

That’s a historical milestone, as he’s the city’s second-longest serving fire chief, with 13.8 years of service. Only Chief Keeter (1955 to 1973) had a longer tenure, with 18 years.

Thus a historical perspective is in order. See this PDF document: legeros.com/ralwake/raleigh/history/writing/recap-2006-2019.pdf

Pulling from past newsletter issues (www.raleighfirenews.org) and other records of mine, here’s a look at the Raleigh Fire Department “then and now”, from February 2006 to October 2019.

Long list of milestones and more. Congrats on your retirement, Chief. And thanks for leaving the Raleigh Fire Department better than you found it.