When Atlanta Fire Chief Joel Baker retires Thursday, the department’s second in command and head of operations will temporarily take the helm.
First Deputy Chief Randall Slaughter will serve as interim fire chief. Slaughter, a graduate of the Atlanta Public Schools system, said he was “honored and humbled” that Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms “placed her trust” in him for the position.
When Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport lost power after a fire in December, Slaughter took over from the airport’s fire chief as head of the incident command center.
“In my 28 years, I’ve never seen a fire this intense down in a tunnel area,” he said at the time.