After months of internal upheaval over a backlog in inspections, the Los Angeles Fire Department is replacing the official in charge of enforcing fire safety codes for apartment houses, schools, hospitals and other high-occupancy buildings.
Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said in a staff memo that Fire Marshal John Vidovich will step down next month and be assigned to the mayor’s office in an advisory position focused on new construction. A Fire Department spokesman said Vidovich intends to retire in May. Vidovich leaves one of the LAFD’s top jobs barely two years into his tenure. Last year, he pledged to reform the agency’s Fire Prevention Bureau after a Times investigation found that about 6,800 buildings were months or even years overdue for an inspection.
But several senior inspectors later told The Times that, under Vidovich, the bureau put the public at risk by requiring them to cut corners on safety reviews in a frantic effort to clear the backlog.
The labor union that represents the inspectors and other firefighters earlier this year voted to approve a resolution of “no confidence” in Vidovich. Before the department decided to replace Vidovich, the union, a powerful player at City Hall, was preparing to pressure Mayor Eric Garcetti and other elected officials to oust him.