People ask me what a Fire Battalion Chief actually does. I am Michael Karl McNeil, a Former Fire Battalion Chief, and the short answer is that a Battalion Chief is the officer who stops doing the work personally and starts being responsible for the people who do it.

Where does the rank sit?

In most fire organizations, a Battalion Chief sits above the company officers, the captains who run individual engines and crews, and below the division chiefs and the chief of the department. A battalion is a group of stations, crews or programs. The Battalion Chief is accountable for all of them at once.

What does a prevention Battalion Chief do?

My path ran through fire prevention. I advanced from Fire Prevention Captain to Fire Battalion Chief for Prevention in federal fire. That job is less about running into the fire and more about making sure fewer fires start: inspection programs, public education, code compliance, hazardous materials programs, training records, and the officers and crews who carry those programs out. When a fire does happen, a Battalion Chief may also step into an incident command role on the scene.

What does the job train you for?

Three things, mostly. First, seeing a whole operation instead of one task in it. Second, writing things down so they stand up later, because a prevention program lives and dies by its records. Third, explaining the reason behind a rule well enough that people follow it when no one is watching. Those three skills are the core of the environmental health and safety and industrial hygiene work I do now as principal of McNeil Safety Consulting.

Is the title still used after leaving the fire service?

I describe myself as a Former Fire Battalion Chief. It is an accurate statement of the rank I held and the twenty-five years behind it. The ranks I held along the way are on the ranks held page, and more questions are answered on the questions and answers page.

Michael Karl McNeil, REP, RIH, EPP, QSD, Former Fire Battalion Chief.