Anne Arundel Fire Promotes Five, Including 14 Year Edgewater Veteran

Anne Arundel County Fire Department Chief John Robert Ray promoted five members of the department during a ceremony on Thursday. Two were promoted to Captain and three promoted to Lieutenant.

“This is a major step for these individuals who will now have a supervisory, or an increased level of managerial responsibility, over other emergency responders of our Department” Chief Ray said.

One of the five is from Edgewater. He is Captain Michael J. Pfaltzgraff, with 14 years of service.

Acting county executive John Hammond, on left, stands with Chief John Ray, on right, to honor five fire department personnel promoted to captain and lieutenant at a ceremony on Thursday.

Generally, fire departments rank personnel from firefighter to chief. Here is a typical ranking according to firehouse.com:

• Firefighter
• Enginneer/Driver/FEO (Fire Equipment Operator)
• Lieutenant
• Captain
• Battalion Chief
• District Chief
• Assistant Chief (or Deputy Chief)
• Chief

Generally, a lieutenant is responsible as an officer for a company. There can be more than one lieutenant assigned to a station. A captain is the officer in command of a company or station. A captain may have one or more lieutenants working at the station with him.

Since the county fire department was founded over six decades ago, it has been a mixture of professional and volunteer firefighters. Within each station, the professional firefighters are managed by the county fire department. Volunteers may have their own structures and ranks in place.