DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County Fire Chief Darnell Fullum has been named 2023 Fire Chief of the Year by the Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs.
The department said that since 2017, Chief Fullum has championed better pay for firefighters.
In April 2023, after a series of pay raises during the last several years, the starting salary for new firefighter recruits to the department became one of the highest among large local governments in the state.
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Chief Fullum used $2 million in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funding to design and develop a fleet of 10 new rapid response vehicles.
He also led the efforts to allocate another $44 million to replace four existing fire stations, repair existing stations, and construct two new fire stations.
Chief Fullum began as the department’s fire chief in 2014.
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