50 Members of Philadelphia Fire Department Receive Promotions
By Dan Wing
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Fire Department held a promotional ceremony today for fifty of its members.
With family, friends, and emergency response peers in the crowd at the Philadelphia Fire Academy, on the edge of the Delaware River in Holmesburg, the members being promoted listened as soon-to-be-retired fire commissioner Lloyd Ayers, himself a 40-year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department, reminded the crowd of some of the tragedies the department helps combat every day:
"Record-setting rain, bringing buckets of pain and need. Explosions, collapses of streets, triple-alarm fires, rescues, and reassurances. Wires, and fires everywhere. Accidents and angst."
Ayers will be retiring the middle of next month.
Today's large group of promotions will provide the city with five new deputy chiefs, four new battalion chiefs, six new fire captains, five new fire paramedic captains, 11 fire lieutenants, and 19 fire paramedic lieutenants.
